400 labour camps risk closure for violations

Dubai Municipality shuts down some worker housing for failing to meet minimum health and fire safety standards.

Dubai Municipality has conducted a wide-ranging inspection of workers' accommodations.

DUBAI // More than 400 labour camps in Dubai are facing closure for failing to meet minimum health and fire safety standards. The clampdown comes after 11 men died in an early morning fire on Tuesday that engulfed a 30-room villa complex illegally housing up to 500 labourers.

A senior Dubai Municipality official said 40 per cent of 1,033 permanent and temporary labour camps risked closure. Some of the labour camps inspected face immediate closure, while others have been issued with probation periods ranging from three months to one year. Three-month eviction notices have also been issued to a number of camps that failed basic health and fire safety standards set by the municipality.

During this week's blaze, blocked exits meant a number of the labourers, many of them on fire, had to jump from windows to escape. Two leaseholders of the villa were later arrested for violating Dubai's health and safety regulations. Following the inspections, carried out over recent months, labour camps that failed to supply fire extinguishers and provide labourers with clear fire exit signs were considered serious offenders and given a three-month probation period.

Serious violations include faulty electrical and gas fittings and the use of asbestos materials. Redah Salman, the director of public health for Dubai Municipality, said: "We have finished our health and safety survey of all labour camps and a number of temporary on-site camps will be closed down for failing their health and safety and have been served their three months' notice. "Those who were not serious violators and only failed a few check points were given six- [month] to one-year probation."