DOHA: Amid complaints about a delay in implementation of the law banning labour accommodations in residential areas, the municipal authorities have disclosed that some 752 accommodations have already been evacuated in Doha and Al Rayyan, over the past one year.
Eleven months have gone after the law was implemented in November last year. Several citizens have come out heavily against the authorities for the delay in taking action on complaints being lodged by residents about the continuing presence of large numbers of single workers in their neighbourhood.
The municipalities of Doha and Al Rayyan received a total of 1.374 requests seeking eviction of the accommodations over this period, Al Sharq reported yesterday quoting official sources. Al Rayyan, where a large number of labour accommodations are housed, saw more complaints and more evictions.
Of the total 752 houses evicted during the period, 567 fell in Al Rayyan and the remaining 185 were in Doha municipality. Of the total requests, 988 were from residents of Al Rayyan.
Majority of the evictions were carried out through an administrative decision issued by the municipalities, but the authorities had to use force to evict 50 accommodations in Doha and 143 houses in Al Rayyan. Once a violation is detected, the municipal inspectors give one month time to the owners to evict their tenants. Forceful eviction is resorted to when the landlords fail to comply with the law within the deadline.
Quoting a senior official of the Al Rayyan municipality, the paper said that some citizens who are lodging complaints were mixing between labourers and other categories of single workers.
He clarified that the law applies to only construction workers and it does not ban accommodations of other segments of single workers in residential areas.
However, some landlords are trying to escape action by mingling labourers and other groups of single workers in their property. There are others who accommodate families in the front part of the buildings and labourers in the back to deceive the municipal inspectors. Such tactics will not work and the law is very clear about such violations, warned the official.
There are also landlords who re-rent their accommodations to construction companies after they are evacuated. This will also not help evade action.
The law however has allowed companies with small number of workers - 15 to 20 - that have projects in residential areas to put up their workers in localities concerned, clarified the officials.
The criticisms from citizens were mainly centered around the delayed response to their complaints as well as the procedural delays. Industry sources, however, point out that a failure to find alternative arrangements to accommodate the large number of construction workers being evicted from residential areas is the major factor that delays the implementation of the law in several localities.
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