Dubai Municipality shuts down more than 100 non-compliant labour camps

These regulations tackle ten different areas such as the situation of buildings, sleeping quarters, entertainment areas, dining facilities, drinking water, health services, waste removal, pest control and first aid.

Companies and firms that own or run these labour camps have been given one year's notice to provide replacements that comply with the international standards of safety and health set by the municipality.

Al Muhaisina 2 is home to 495 camps, including some of the oldest labour residential sites in the Emirate, making it target for the first wave of inspections.

Eng. Salem Mesmar, Public Health Director and chairman of the recently established Committee in the Municipality, said that the committee has shut down almost 20% of the labour camps in that area after the first batch of intensive field assessments.

"Not only have we shut down almost one-fifth of the labour camps in that area for failure to meet standards, but we have also ordered for improvements to be made to the remaining camps so that they adhere to the outlined regulations", said Mesmar.

"We are also coordinating with specialized units from the municipality that assess the area and suggest ways to improve the level of services provided by the municipality - such as hygiene and waste disposal - in these areas. These units also identify and assign new locations for future labour camps that comply to the regulations to be built", Mesmar added.

The Committee for Environmental and Health affairs of Laborers in Dubai has already established a technical task force from different departments (public health, environment and buildings) to start evaluating the conditions and the state of the buildings in some of the older labour camps and studying the possibility of demolishing the buildings that cannot be maintained or renovated, or those that have random add-on features that have not received approval or been granted license.

Mesmar went on to explain that the decision to demolish some of the older labour camps in the area was made after assessing the situation of the buildings, and deciding that renovation would be a costly and time-consuming option that would not yield the desired results.