Qatari authorities have evicted hundreds of migrant workers from buildings in central Doha, casting a new shadow over the countdown to the World Cup, residents and workers said Saturday, IgbereTV reports
Municipal workers and security guards moved into about 12 buildings late on Wednesday to clear and lock them, according to local residents, ahead of the tournament that kicks off on November 20.
The government said the buildings were “uninhabitable”, proper notice was given, and that alternative “safe and appropriate accommodation” had been found for all evictees.
The affected area, largely around Al-Mansoura, has been massively redeveloped in recent years and some World Cup fans will stay in apartments in the district, where dozens of mechanical diggers are parked in the streets.
In the early hours of Saturday, Yunus, a Bangladeshi driver, slept on the back of his flat-bed truck on a street in Al Mansoura, three nights after being forced out of one block.
“The first night it was chaos and there was not enough room for everyone to go to other places,” he said.
In any case, “this truck is my life and I will not leave it until I have somewhere where I can park it” near the new accommodation, he added.
Yunus said it was the third time he had been forced to move in three years
