A major milestone was reached yesterday as the number of people in labour camps in densely populated areas in Manama was reduced by around 34 per cent.
The feat was achieved in 293 days of the Capital Governorate launching a campaign to decongest accommodations shared by low-income workers, following the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19).
Capital Governor Shaikh Hisham bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa attributed the success of the campaign to a “quick-fix” strategy which featured cutting off power supply to these camps until the landlords fixed the violations; owners who failed to do so faced legal action.
“When we started this campaign following the outbreak of Covid-19 last year there were about 59,247 low-income workers living in sharing or crammed accommodations in different blocks in Manama, posing a health and safety risk,” Shaikh Hisham told the GDN yesterday.
“Today, we have now reduced that number to 39,224 which is a big achievement in less than a year,” he added.
“We intend to continue with this campaign in the capital.”
A total of 20,023 workers have been relocated, as the milestone was reached yesterday when a violation was recorded at a labour camp located on Road 2153, Gudaibiya.
Inspectors posted a notice on the premises about disconnecting power supply to the building.
“Our teams inspected 2,879 buildings under this campaign and disconnected power supply to 1,956 violating properties,” said Shaikh Hisham.
“Each accommodation was checked for the number of beds and if a violation was found, a notice was pasted at the entrance warning the tenants of power supply disruption.”
Power was restored to 1,894 buildings after the landlords reduced overcrowding or modified the structure.
“Overall, 97 per cent of inspected buildings corrected their violations.”
The Capital Governor said the original plan to tackle the problem of overcrowding in labour camps in Manama was launched in 2013 but the campaign picked up steam after the outbreak of Covid-19.
Officials in the past said that as many as 150,000 people lived in more than 3,000 properties registered as licensed labour accommodation.
However, that did not include buildings illegally housing workers that were not registered as labour accommodation and properties converted as labour camps.
According to rules stipulated in 2015, labour accommodations must be far from urban and residential areas and provide almost four sqm of space for each tenant and house no more than eight people in a single room.
It also directed employers to register new staff accommodation including the location, number of tenants and their gender.
A safety certificate from the Civil Defence is also required as are first-aid facilities, kitchens, toilets, drinking water sources and proper sanitation.
Present during the inspection yesterday was Capital Governorate Police Directorate director-general Brigadier Ibrahim Al Najran.
“This is a big achievement for all of us to reach the target of reducing concentration of labour camps by 20,000 in Manama despite the pandemic.”
“We will continue with our campaigns and raise awareness among the workers about health and safety risks associated with shared accommodations,” he said.
The GDN reported last year that hundreds of workers were relocated to a dedicated shelter at Adhari Park and other locations as part of a campaign to limit the spread of Covid-19.
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