Dubai, (AP) – Workers at a Dubai labour camp are staging a rare strike after a melee with security guards.

A company official overseeing the workers says the riot broke out late on Saturday after long-standing allegations of mistreatment by the guards.

The official from Jams HR Solutions describes the damage as “huge” with at least 40 buses destroyed and furniture and windows smashed.

Advertisement: Story continues below Police remained at the site on Monday as the 2000 workers, most of them South Asians, refuse to leave for various construction sites.

Work protests are unusual in Dubai despite growing complaints of pay shortfalls since Dubai’s economic slump last year.

Rights groups also have pressed for better living conditions for the tens of thousands of Asian hard-hat labourers.