DOHA: Tired of hiring runaway workers for help and risking legal action, campers now want authorities to ensure they can access temporary workers legally.
Many campers continue to rely on runaway workers despite being aware that their action is illegal and of frequent thefts in their tents.
Last year, the Search and Follow-Up Department raided camping areas and arrested some 64 runaway workers illegally engaged in different work.
Runaway workers who are a security risk to the country work one-off as labourers helping install tents, the local Arabic daily Al Raya reported yesterday.
They also work as cook and night security guards for campers for longer tenures for monthly payments of up to QR1,500.
Their services continue during the camping season provided there are no untoward incidents like thefts and then they vanish in thin air.
They don’t have ID cards and health certificates so hiring them is illegal and risky, said Meshal Al Sulaiti, a camper.
He said since he set up his tent some 10 runaway workers had approached him for work and he had turned them back. “I asked them if they had letters from their sponsors allowing them to have sponsorship change or their permission to be lent for six months to work in my camp, but they replied in the negative. “I have ACs in my tent, a TV set and a generator but I don’t need a guard at night,” said Al Sulaiti.
Another Qatari, Abdulaziz Al Emadi, said being a young man he didn’t have enough money to employ someone full-time as a helper during the camping season.
“We need someone to be with me at the tent temporarily, for six months or so, as a cook, cleaner and guard. For that, why should I employ someone for ever?”
Some campers need workers for two months. Manpower agencies should be allowed to supply temporary workers during the camping season, he said.
The Peninsula
