Deira fire highlights overcrowding

About 15 Pakistani men live in one room at a villa bordering the site of the Deira fire.

DUBAI // Cramped and claustrophobic, the dingy room where Alexander lives is an unlikely space for the forklift driver and his 14 roommates to find respite after a long day or night at work. The room, practically stuffed with bunk beds, is barely able to house the 15 men and their possessions.

Yesterday, there was one more consideration for the men; just a few metres away, in the building next door, 11 men had died in a fire that brought the issue of overcrowding to the fore. "Nightmares of the fire still haunt me," said Alexander, who watched as the inferno engulfed the building in the Naif area of Dubai last Tuesday. "A day after the fire, I even thought about leaving this villa and taking the next flight back home. I changed my mind for the sake of my wife and children who depend on me. But we know we could be the next victims of such a fire."

The fire has underscored the stark choices both labourers and municipality officials here face. On one hand, rental costs are skyrocketing and even these beds are becoming harder to find. But with each new tenant, the risks of fire and accidents grow. On the other hand, closing down overcrowded housing will only worsen the problem until new accommodation can be built. Dubai Municipality started the drive against bachelors last year, insisting that they cannot live in villas. Officials say more labour accommodation is being built in areas such as Al Quoz and Sonapur, on the outskirts of the city, to house blue-collar workers, while executive bachelors can live in residential buildings in the city.

However, the workers say the rent in such accommodation is unaffordable and the homes are too far from their places of work. "We have seen some such accommodations in Dubai and they too are too expensive for us. Besides, all our money will be spent in just getting to work since there is no proper public transport from such places to the city," said Annu, a labourer. Last week, in response to the fire, officials in Dubai pledged to take a far more aggressive tack with landlords who overcrowded their properties. They sent warnings to the owners of more than 400 labour camps, threatening to shut them down if they failed to meet health and safety standards.

But the accommodation next to the villa that burnt down highlights the scale of the problem. The two-storey traditional villa with more than 32 rooms was home to hundreds of bachelors stuffed into congested spaces. Loose electric wires hang dangerously from fixtures, while men cook in open kitchens with gas cylinders outside each room. They live in rooms with flammable materials and no ventilation.

"We get five minutes in the bathroom each morning and soon people will starting knocking on the door. I can say for sure that more than 50 per cent of people here have their shower and other cleaning in their offices," said Alexander. Ironically on Fridays, which is their only day off, there is no water in the villa. "Due to overuse, most Fridays there is no water. We feel like it's been ages since we had a good bath," he said.

Residents said there was not enough clean water to wash before offering prayers on a Friday. The kitchen is shared by all residents. "We are all human and we understand each other's plight. That is the only reason why we are able to coexist in such an environment," said Mohammed Azhar, another resident. Alexander earns little more than Dh1,000 (US$272) each month, too little to live in a decent home, he says. Sharing his room with 14 others, he pays Dh350 for a bed space that has to accommodate his baggage, his clothes and other belongings, and leaves just enough space for him to sleep.

Combined with an obligation to send Dh300 home each month, this is the most he can afford. "Most of us deliberately come by midnight and wake up by 5am. There is just enough room to sleep and no other luxuries are encouraged here," he said. His roommates Raju Bhai and Annu voice the same concerns as they also struggle to send money back to their families. Often, their family simply does not understand that life in the UAE is getting expensive.

"We get calls from India if we do not send money home every month. They do not understand that living here is getting more and more expensive," said Raju Bhai, a marketing executive in Dubai. Agents often rent out the whole room for about Dh4,000, which is then sub-let to many others so that everyone can afford to live. With the rent for bed spaces likely to increase by Dh50 next month, the bachelors are now even thinking of bringing more people into the room.

Overcrowding has proven a nationwide problem. In Abu Dhabi, similar questions revolve around labour accommodation located in Sanaiya, where abandoned warehouses or unfinished villas have been converted into labour quarters. While some are partitioned with plywood and cardboard and made into makeshift rooms, most accommodation lacks basic safeguards from fire. One unfinished villa with eight rooms had a construction crew living in it. While the workers were unable to provide exact numbers of the occupants, they estimated about eight people lived in each room.

"Sometimes there is no electricity for the entire day," said a labourer, who pointed out that the infrastructure in the kitchen, where exhaust fans were not working, would lead to overheating. A lack of proper drainage facilities in the toilets meant the water would often flood the floors and rise up to the electrical sockets, he said. The blaze in Naif has shaken residents there, who now wonder whether it could happen again.

"People just ran out in whatever they were wearing, fearing for their lives. We are just glad to be alive today," said Alexander. Many claim to have seen gas cylinders explode and men stuck inside the villa burning alive. "They were also human beings like us who were living in dangerous situations just to survive. My heart sinks when I think of their deaths," said Fayaz Ahmed, a taxi driver. [e-mail]