Low-income workers have few options to unwind as recreation and travel are too expensive for them (Pictures: Shaival Dalal)
By Azmat Haroon
Hundreds of low-income single foreign workers throng the Grand Hamad Street in Doha every Friday. The crowds, all of them men, start gathering after Friday prayers and spend most of the afternoon in the area, usually in cafeterias or strolling from one shop to another. By evening, buses begin ferrying them back to labour accommodations in different parts of the country.
These low-income expatriate workers comprise a large majority of Qatar’s population. In 2012, more than 94,000 labourers were recruited from overseas for ongoing development projects in the country, statistics from the Recruitment Department at the Ministry of Labour reveal.
Yet, unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of labourers in the country do not have proper entertainment facilities to avail of during their only day off in a week.
The twin theatres of Gulf Cinema used to be a popular place to spend some time, and according to some estimates more than 60,000 people used to visit the cinemas every month.
Tickets at the cinemas were priced at between QR15 and QR25, the lowest in the country.
The cinemas also provided an opportunity for labourers, the majority of them from South Asia, to step out of their accommodation for some form of amusement and not just work.
But the theatres were closed some seven months ago without any prior notice, and there is no sign of them reopening soon.
The other options for the labourers are either the malls or beaches. Although there is no official ban on labourers entering local malls and souqs, security guards often shoo them away when they see many families inside the places.
“We don’t stop labourers from entering the mall but sometimes when there are too many families inside, we tell them to come on a different date when there is not a lot of rush,” a security guard at a mall said.
However, even without the ban, few of them are interested in visiting malls because they can hardly afford to buy anything there, including food items.
Bhupan, a carpenter from Bangladesh, said that he had stopped going out in the city in recent years.
“There is a lot of work most weeks and I don’t get many days off. I prefer to sleep whenever I have some free time. Sometimes I just go to the Grand Hamad Street or near the old National Area with my friends to spend some time.”
He said that the labourers were divided into groups that did not mingle with one another. These groups are largely based on nationality. Bhupan and his friends, for instance, avoid areas where they see groups of single working men from other Asian countries.
Adding to the woes of these labourers is the fact that they are being pushed to the outskirts of the city following a ban on labour accommodations in residential areas. In 2012 alone, 752 accommodations were evacuated in different parts of the country, official figures suggest.
Qatar Population Status 2012 says: “According to the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, the number of cases in which law has been fully implemented to prevent singles’ housing near families has reached 460.”
Some labourers say that because of a heavy workload and living in accommodations that have increasingly become more crowded, they are able to relax only when they visit their countries.
“I usually go home after two years. That’s the only time I have fun or relax because in Qatar I don’t have any other activity besides work,” Sanjiv, a labourer from Nepal, said.
He said his company did not provide any transport facility on their day off, which made going anywhere difficult.
“Taking a taxi is too expensive, and if we have to take a Karwa bus on our free day, we have to wait for a long time because of the rush,” said the 32-year-old, who lives near Al Sailiya.
He said that every once in a while some of his friends together borrowed someone’s car for a day to visit different places in the country.
But labourers are now not being issued driving licences for light and heavy vehicles. A circular issued by the Department of Traffic to driving schools recently asked them not to register labourers from July 1 to learn to drive light and heavy vehicles and seek licences.
The rule applies to labourers across all sectors, including private companies that employ the largest number of unskilled foreign workforce, and government and semi-government entities.
Asked if the latest ban had affected him or his friends, Sanjiv said: “I only feel bad for people who are coming to work here this year. During the first year, time goes by very fast. But then after that, you start missing home because you realise there is nothing to do here except work.”
Statistics reveal that in the semi-skilled and unskilled category, as many as 94,043 labourers were recruited last year, including 20,808 drivers, 18,602 cleaners and 17,578 technicians.
Other workers who came to Qatar in 2012 were carpenters (14,618), brick makers (12,284), foremen (10,273), engineers (9,956), salesmen (9,659) and painters (9,324).
Some 9,296 plumbers, 8,173 steel fixers, 8,037 blacksmiths, 7,759 construction workers, 7,373 waiters, 6,981 general electricians, 9,792 heavy vehicle drivers, 6,673 accountants and 6,607 workers for plasters were also recruited.
According to one psychiatrist working at a local clinic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, many clinics receive cases of labourers who resort to negative behaviour or fall seriously ill due to stress and depression.
“Being away from home itself can be a cause of depression. Add to that the fact that they don’t have any healthy activities or spare time, then certainly many health problems can result from it.”
She said that sometimes, because of work pressure and an unhealthy lifestyle, patients can resort to negative behaviour.
“Some people start smoking, others drink too much, and we have also seen cases being transferred from the emergency section because of fights between labourers over trivial issues,” she added.
The Industrial Area, where most of these labourers live, is one place where reportedly many illegal activities take place apart from gambling, hooch-making and sale of illegal CDs.
Some reports last year suggested that a commercial and entertainment complex was being built for single workers near the East Zone of the Industrial Area. It was reported that the complex was designed according to the needs of the labourers, and would comprise four cinema halls and space for over 300 shops and eateries. Attempts to get updates on the project from officials failed.
However, given the growing population, among them labourers, it is high time authorities completed such projects, a worker said.
Entertainment should be affordable to all classes of people, and at least part of the facilities should be open to single working expatriates in the country, he added.
The Peninsula
