DUBAI // Police have arrested 83 men alleged to be living illegally in a market building housing an electricity transformer. Raids were carried out last week by Dubai Municipality with Dubai Police at the Central Fruit and Vegetable Market in Warsan. Khalifa Hareb, the municipality's director of properties, said the men were sleeping in the transformer room, telephone rooms and water pumping stations inside the market.
Some were market workers and their employer will be prosecuted or face fines for making them sleep in inadequate housing, Mr Hareb said. "Others were illegal residents who had no other accommodation." The six buildings had been built to house market workers. Mr Hareb said he did not know why the workers had been living in illegal quarters. Authorities warned last year that companies would be fined up to Dh25,000 (US$6,800) if workers were housed in factories or at worksites without permission.
Last year police found at least 200 labourers living in cardboard boxes in the basement of a building site. The workers had complained about their living conditions and a case has been filed against the general manager of the building company. eharnan@thenational.ae
