He said companies faced severe fines or closure if they failed to comply with new rules on payment of wages, standards of accommodation and other aspects of the employment of migrant workers in the hyper-wealthy Gulf emirate.
It was hoped that Abdullah's birth in Riyadh would end the enmity between the ousted northern Hail emirate and the newly emerging Saudi kingdom.
Gulf Labor launched an artists' boycott of the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim in 2011 and last year project insiders and art experts said the emirate should scale back its plans, possibly even scrapping the Guggenheim museum.
Abdullah's mother, Fahda bint Asi al-Shuraim, was the widow of Saud ibn Rashid, who ruled over the emirate before its collapse at the hands of Saudi forces in 1921.
It is likely to become the biggest container port in the world by 2030.Three decades ago Jebel Ali became the Middle East's first big "free zone" (a place where foreign firms can operate, unusually, without a local partner and with less red tape and lower taxes than in the rest of the emirate).
Coastguard sources reveal privately that the barge came from an oil terminal on Iran's Lavan island and was bound for a private customer in Ajman, another tiny emirate.
Black emirate The high price of sticking with Oslo When local farmers know best Freely wandering in Iraq Hail a taxi and die ReprintsIn the mostly Shia south, the atmosphere is a little more subdued.
Yet, unlike its neighbour, the emirate pursues modernising and tolerant social policies, especially via its first lady, Sheikha Mozah.
The bidoun forfeit the amenities that the oil-rich emirate showers on its citizens, including education.António Guterres, the current high commissioner for refugees, says more and more countries agree, at least, that statelessness is a problem; and several have taken steps to alleviate it.
Following sustained pressure from Islamist Sunni members of parliament, the emirate revoked the Kuwaiti passport of Yasser al-Habib, a Shia preacher exiled in London, whose sermons suggesting that one of Muhammad's wives had poisoned the prophet prompted widespread outrage, including condemnation by fellow Shia clerics.
In total the emirate hosts 1.5m migrants who toil under a system that has been compared to slavery.
