A dilapidated entrance of an accommodation in the Old Airport areawhich is occupied by low-income workers.kammutty V P
BY MOHMMAD SHOEB
DOHA: They not only work illegally but also risk their lives living in ramshackle buildings that can cave in any time. They are from South Asian countries, mainly Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and making a living, working illegally.
Some of them drive private taxis, while others sell ‘paan’ (green leaves chewed with a mixture of lime and tobacco in some South Asian countries) and ‘gutka’ (chewing tobacco popular mostly with the Nepalese, Indians and Bangladeshis), and still others vend what they pass on as fresh fish in their locality, the Old Airport Area.
Nazrul Islam (not his real name), a Bangladeshi national, lives in a room that admeasures 300 square feet—a spacious one but he shares it with six others. He and his companions drive private taxis. The building which their room is part of is dilapidated and can come crashing like a pack of cards any moment.
The room is congested with three bunk-beds, a television set and a few other household items, leaving little space to walk around. A stench hangs in the air, so strong that it causes instant nausea.
This is not the only dangerous building in the Old Airport Area which hardly has any ventilation and is inhabited by the so-called self-employed mainly from Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, among other countries. There are numerous such shaky structures in the entire locality that are inhabited by low-income workers.
“We are living in this building and paying very low rent so that we can save more to remit home. As this place is close to shopping and residential areas, there are many other reasons for not leaving this house”, said Gunwardane, a private taxi operator from Sri Lanka. As an illegal taxi operator, Guruwardane and his roommates who are also in this illegal occupation say that frequent traffic jams and launch of private taxi companies have affected their earnings.
“I can hardly afford to spend more than QR400 a month for accommodation. With the rising cost of living, saving money is becoming increasingly difficult now,” he says. “And due to long traffic snarls and more private transport companies with a growing fleet of taxis, our daily income is dwindling,” adds Guruwardane.
Rising demand for and soaring prices of rented homes, coupled with the galloping cost of living, are compelling not only low-income workers to stay in pathetic conditions, but also forcing many middle-income expatriates to live dangerously and battle hardships.
House rents are stable at the moment, but real estate sources say they fear that with the launch of several infrastructure projects the demand, particularly for bed space, might increase considerably as more foreign workers arrive.
“Until recently, if a house was vacated by a tenant, it used to remain unoccupied for months, but now the demand seems to be on an upswing,” said a real estate broker asking not to be named.
He added that although rents were not increasing at the moment, vacant homes did not remain unoccupied for more than 10 days. A surge in demand surely signals that the day isn’t far when rents may begin spiraling.
The Peninsula
