Migrant Workers Kicked Out Of Qatar Capital

Qatar has emptied apartment blocks housing thousands of foreign workers in the same areas in the center of the capital Doha where visiting soccer fans will stay during the World Cup, workers who were evicted from their homes told Andrew Mills of Reuters.

Photo Insert: At one building which residents said housed 1,200 people in Doha's Al Mansoura district, authorities told people at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday they had just two hours to leave.

They said more than a dozen buildings had been evacuated and shut down by authorities, forcing the mainly Asian and African workers to seek what shelter they could - including bedding down on the pavement outside one of their former homes.

The move comes less than four weeks before the Nov. 20 start of the global soccer tournament which has drawn intense international scrutiny of Qatar's treatment of foreign workers and its restrictive social laws.

At one building which residents said housed 1,200 people in Doha's Al Mansoura district, authorities told people at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday they had just two hours to leave.

Municipal officials returned around 10.30 p.m. forced everyone out and locked the doors to the building, they said. Some men had not been able to return in time to collect their belongings.

Around 85% of Qatar's three million population are foreign workers. Many of those evicted work as drivers, day laborers or have contracts with companies but are responsible for their own accommodation - unlike those working for major construction firms who live in camps housing tens of thousands of people.

One worker said the evictions targeted single men, while foreign workers with families were unaffected. Most were in neighborhoods where the government has rented buildings for World Cup fan accommodation.

The organizers' website lists buildings in Al Mansoura and other districts where flats are advertised for between $240 and $426 per night.

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