Dubai closes over 100 labour camps over safety

DUBAI, Nov 30 (Reuters) Dubai said it had shut more than 100 camps housing migrant workers as part of a crackdown on companies abusing labourers key to the Gulf Arab city's construction boom.

The closures come two weeks after Human Rights Watch issued a report urging the United Arab Emirates to enforce laws designed to protect foreign workers the New York-based group said were widely abused by their employers.

Public Health Director Salem Mesmar yesterday said a new municipality committee had closed almost 20 percent of the 495 labour camps in the Al-Muhaisna area, which were found to fall short of minimum standards in building, health services, waste disposal, pest control, drinking water and other basic facilities.

The firms that own or run the camps have been given one year to provide replacement accommodation that meets international health and safety standards, he said in a statement.

''We have also ordered improvements to be made to the remaining camps,'' Mesmar said in a statement.

Dubai, the Gulf's main tourism and trade hub, is going through a construction boom propelled by windfalls from soaring oil prices.

REUTERS PA KP0845