DOHA: A workshop began at the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning yesterday to train civic inspectors how to detect labour camps in residential areas and ensure they are relocated.
Inspectors will not only be lectured on procedures but will also be taken on field trips, possibly to a model labour lodging that was relocated.
The aim is to familiarise civic inspectors with a labour camp as only their counterparts at the Labour Ministry are visit labour camps to check living conditions.
Dr Ahmed Abu Mustafa, a legal expert at the office of the Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning, told local Arabic daily Al Raya that a labour camp to be banned from a residential locality must have at least three workers living in.
Law No. 15 of 2010 that bans labour lodgings in areas where families live also differentiates between labourers and single workers.
Apparently, single workers not employed as labourers with a construction company are not covered under the law.
The expert told the daily that procedures to identify a labour camp in a residential area, verify information and relocate the camp, prima facie, appear to be cumbersome and time-consuming.
Procedures stipulate that after identifying a labour camp suspected to be breaching the law, confirmation is necessary that the information is correct.
Once it is done, a written warning is to be issued to the landlord of the property or the camp operator. The warning must be sent by registered post.
Then, 30 days are allowed for the camp to be vacated.
Once this period ends, the director of the municipality, under whose jurisdiction the area in which the camp is located falls, needs to issue an order for forcible eviction of the camp.
The landlord or the operator of the camp can challenge the director’s decision at the ministry within 15 days.
Within 30 days after the order has been challenged at the ministry, the latter has to reply rejecting or accepting the petition (of the landlord/camp operator). The ministry not responding in 30 days is a sign of rejection of the petition after which a camp can be relocated.
The Peninsula
