DUBAI // Dozens more homes were this morning raided in the second day of inspections to enforce the municipality's policy to end multi-occupancy villas. The action, after a similar crackdown yesterday, involved cutting power and water and warning illegal occupants to leave immediately. Residents of Al Jafliya were caught off guard as a team of officials walked into their rooms from early morning. In the first few hours of the raid, seven villas were inspected and power was cut off to two of them. Officials said the raids would continue all week. Most villas had 50 to 100 people living in them and were being shared by single men as well as families.
Khalid Selaiteen, the head of Dubai Municipality's environmental emergency office, who led the raids, said: "These people are living in extremely dangerous conditions. "We have repeatedly asked them to leave but they refuse to move." Most villas had previously been warned and had their electricity was cut off. However, villa occupants had reconnected the power lines with the help of private electricians. Khaliq Alam, who lived in an illegally occupied villa in Al Jafliya, said: "We had no choice but to reconnect [the power]. "The heat is unbearable and we can't find another place so fast.".
Residents complained that they are not paid enough to afford rented accommodation elsewhere in the emirate. They pay around Dh500 for a bed space in villas. The municipality officials argued that the residents have been given them two years to relocate to apartments. The "one villa, one family" rule was launched by the municipality in May 2008. It states that villas can only be occupied by single families. pmenon@thenational.ae
