According to a police report, the construction worker was sacked five months ago, failed to find a new job to pay off his debts and became an ``illegal'' resident because he was out of work. What he left behind was a hovel he shared with half a dozen other Indian labourers; and an impoverished family back in Kerala, southern India, the man wrote in a suicide note.

Asians, who make up the bulk of the labour force in the oil-rich Gulf monarchies, see the region as a gold mine when they first apply in millions for jobs. Failure to make a small fortune, at least by the standards ofback home, is seen as bringing shame on the family, according to studies on suicide in the Gulf.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) newspapers earlier this year reported how a Sri Lankan maid strangled her 15-month-old baby before killing herself with a strong dose of chemical detergents in her employer's villa. Others jump from the top of apartment blocks. A total of 230 suicides were recorded in the UAE alone between 1992 and 1997, according to a police study. Cases of abuse by employers are common among Asian maids. Ninety-two per cent of suicide cases are expatriates, with Indians accounting for 75 per cent, said Captain Mohammad Ghader al-Qutabi, who compiled the study.

He said most Indian suicide cases chose to hang themselves. Women opted to take poison. Some six per cent left behind suicide notes and 21 per cent drank alcohol first to work up the courage.

Saeed Humaid Nasser, head of the criminal statistics department in the Emirate of Ajman, said 99 people committed suicide in the UAE in 1996, up from68 the year before. ``There was no case of suicide among (UAE) nationals over these two years,'' he said, noting that suicide is strictly forbidden in Islam. Although it is not a criminal offense under UAE federal law, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, which is also the capital, imposes jail sentences and fines for attempted suicide.

In Kuwait, where suicide is also considered a crime, the rate has tripled since the 1991 Gulf War but most cases are foreigners, The Arab Times reported earlier this month.

An interior ministry official, quoted in the newspaper, said the rate had shot up to almost 40 a year, compared to an annual tally of 10 before the Iraqi occupation of August 1990.