Dubai’s police chief has called for better coordination to “guarantee cleanliness” at labour camps across the emirates.
The Commander General of the Dubai Police, Lt General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, demanded that municipality and Labour Ministry officials work together to ensure camps provided adequate living conditions to construction workers in the UAE.
His comments followed claims last week in a BBC documentary that some labourers in Dubai were living in “inhumane conditions”.
The Minister of Labour, Saqr Ghobash, has said that the ministry was investigating the “veracity” of the issues raised by the programme.
Chairing a meeting of the team leaders of the labour crises management, Tamim underscored the importance of ensuring adequate standards of cleanliness and safety in labour camps and warned that companies would be penalised for any violations, news agency WAM reported.
He also stressed the need for field inspections and periodic reports to find solutions to any obstacles preventing improvements from being carried out.
The satisfaction of workers and company owners, as well as provision of suitable housing for labourers are important, Tamim added.
He underlined the need for spreading the culture of social responsibility and security and creating the awareness among owners of private firms on the need for guaranteeing their workers “a life in dignity by meeting their rights”.
Last week, in a strong response to the findings of the programme, CEO Riad Kamal accused Panorama of being unfair in its reporting of the living and working conditions of workers of Arabtec Construction, a subsidiary of Arabtec Holding.
Arabtec had more than 20 camps in Dubai and Abu Dhabi which were cleaned daily, Kamal said.
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