Police in Abu Dhabi has arrested 60 illegal residents living in an old decaying building as part of a crackdown in the UAE to stop labour and residency violations.
The Ministry of Interior said 60 Bengali nationals were arrested after being reported by their sponsors and employers as absconding from their workplaces.
According to a statement by the Ministry’s Security Media Department published by news agency WAM, the team who carried out the raid on the 18-apartment residential building in the Nadi Siyahi area reported “bizarre and naive” attempts by the targeted individuals to hide away from policemen.
Some of them lay under beds, others were tucked in blankets or squeezed into tight kitchen cupboards while others rushed to balconies in desperate attempts to hide and avoid being arrested, WAM added.
Team members added that the accommodation was extremely filthy and too crowded and were “infested with rodents, roaches and other dangerous pests”.
Major General Nasser Al-Awadhi Al-Menhali, acting assistant undersecretary of Naturalisation, Residency at the Ministry of Interior, said: “The living conditions inside the apartments do not meet the minimum health and safety standards and requirements of the UAE.
“The tenants are exposed to a very high risk of developing dangerous health problem and contracting contagious diseases.”
The Ministry did not say whether the men had been deported yet.
