NEWS FROM THE UAE
Source : THE NATIONAL

Driven into kerbside bedrooms

SHARJAH - SEP 28: Every evening, “Shafiq”, a Pakistani driving instructor, searches for a parking space in the crowded streets of Abu Shagara, tilts his car seat back as far as it will go and, leaving the engine and the air-conditioning running, does his best to get a decent night’s sleep.

Luckily for him, petrol is still a lot cheaper than rent.

As Sharjah, Ajman and Ras al Khaimah absorb the ever-increasing exodus of house-hunters from Dubai, migrating along the coast in search of affordable rents, it is the working poor in those emirates who are paying the price.

Shafiq is one of a growing number of people being driven out of homes and into cars by rising rents and increasing living costs. A year ago, he was sharing one room with three friends in the Ghaefiya area until the municipality demolished the old building to make way for a new development.

Since then, he says, he has had no choice but to use his company Toyota Corolla as a kerbside bedroom.

“At first I thought I would find another house,” he says. “I looked for one for about a week and all the deposits, real-estate commission and rent itself was too much for me and my colleagues.

“After staying in the car for a week I thought it was normal and I am pushing on with it.”

His family in Pakistan knows he is now homeless. Whenever he calls home his eldest daughter, aged 10, cries and says: “Dad, I just can’t stand it that you are living in a car.”

He does his best to reassure the family: “I’ll say, ‘You know what? This is OK for now because I’m safe, healthy and have a job; things will get better with time.’ But I don’t think so.”

There are now several areas in Sharjah where, late at night or early in the morning, people can be seen sleeping in cars. Although it provides no figures, the municipality says it has come across an increasing number of people like Shafiq. Guilty of a bylaw offence, for some of them a Dh500 fine has been added to the burden of homelessness.

In one case, “We also found someone who had also stocked a lot of alcohol in his car,” said Hareeb al Tunaiji, the head of the municipality’s inspection team. In addition to receiving the standard fine, this man was also referred to the public prosecution office.

In another case, he said, inspectors discovered that mechanics working at a large garage were sleeping in customers’ cars left in the workshop overnight, apparently with their employer’s consent. The garage owner had accepted the situation could not continue, but said most of his workers could no longer afford to rent anywhere to live.

Mr Tunaiji said the man had told officials: “Most of the old cars we have here have no air-conditioning, and since it’s the hot season we allowed them to use the customers’ cars at night and clean them in the morning before the owner comes.”

Discomfort is not the only risk faced by the “car people”. In February last year a 58-year-old jobless Palestinian was found dead in a broken-down car in which he had been living on Al Wahda Street. Residents told police that Bassam Shariff, who had been in the UAE for 20 years, was unable to afford rent and had been living in the vehicle for two years, relying on the bathrooms in mosques.

In Dubai, the municipality said it had not had any reports of people living in cars in the city, but that it would take action against anyone who did.

“Of course this is unhealthy,” said Redha Salman, the director of the Public Health and Safety Department, “but the main issue in such cases is of security as people risk their lives and spoil the environment.”

Many expatriates who work in Dubai say they are now forced to live in Sharjah, Ajman and Ras al Khaimah as rents in Dubai have become unaffordable.

“When I was a bachelor I lived in Dubai and paid just for a bed space,” said Narayan Kutty, a sales representative who now lives with his family in Rolla. “However, when I decided to bring my family here, I had to move to Sharjah because I can’t afford even a small room in Dubai.”

Other complications are putting further strain on housing stock. In May, officials proposed an amendment to labour laws that would prevent companies that were not licensed to operate in the emirate from using Sharjah as a dormitory in which to house workers cheaply. The move, which followed a series of protests and violent skirmishes over the rising cost of living among workers whose jobs were in Dubai or Abu Dhabi but whose quarters were in Sharjah, is also expected to complicate life further for workers who commute from Sharjah to escape Dubai’s high rents.

In Abu Dhabi, where municipal officials also say they have not heard of people living in cars, the pressures of high rents and low supply have created a different problem: the illegal partitioning of villas and apartments. This in turn is putting further pressure on housing stock.

Since March, the municipality has been waging a campaign against violators, many of whom are what Salem al Maameri, the municipality’s director of municipal services, describes as “investors” who rent properties and then modify them into separate apartments, which they then sublet.

“Any building modification has to be approved,” he said. “Sometimes it is external modification, sometimes internal, but it is against the law. This is a big problem and we are fighting it.”

Following a fire that started in a makeshift rooftop development in Abu Dhabi this month, the municipality is also conducting inspections of all high-rise apartment blocks, with the intention of removing such “penthouses”, often home to many workers.

Over the past two years the tide of workers seeking an affordable lifestyle has created a shortage of housing and driven up rents in Ras al Khaimah. The situation is exacerbated by the emirate’s electricity shortage; new houses are being built but, without power, remain empty, leaving more people to squeeze into existing properties.

Ahmad, a driver for a local company, shares two rooms in a partitioned villa with eight men from Peshawar, Pakistan. The rent is Dh1,100 per month, excluding electricity and water. Although they like RAK and count their blessings – they can still afford to send some money home – when Ahmad moved to the emirate 10 years ago four rooms cost him Dh250. His cousin, uncle and son have all returned to Pakistan because of the rising costs and he plans to follow them soon.

Though the room already looks overcrowded, they have a plan in place for the next rent increase – they will replace their mattresses with bunk beds to accommodate yet more people in their room.

In another area of the city, old houses that were abandoned 20 years ago have been converted into small compounds, where each room is shared by up to 10 men. Five or six years ago, rooms that today cost between Dh1,000 and Dh1,500 would have fetched only Dh300.

However, the population explosion in RAK is now making it increasingly profitable for owners to rent these villas to middle-income families, whose companies will offer Dh40,000 or more.

In one such building, 13 men who work as labourers, repair men and drivers are facing eviction from their two-bedroom villa within two months. Some hope to stay with friends and commute to work in RAK. Others are unsure of their future.

The RAK authorities are aware of the problem, says engineer Majid Awwad, a technical adviser to the municipality. The municipality has plans to build low-income housing for labourers and others, but this is not a short-term solution; it will not be ready for at least another two years.

More needed to curb money laundering

ABU DHABI - SEP. 28: More needs to be done to standardise customs laws and enforcement across the emirates to curb money laundering, the Federal Customs Authority (FCA) acknowledged yesterday.

Pressure to improve the system follows publication last week of an International Monetary Fund report that suggested the UAE expand the reach of its anti-money-laundering laws and give greater powers and independence to the enforcement agencies who investigate suspicious financial transactions.

It also found that the rigour and quality of customs varied considerably from emirate to emirate.

Mohammed al Mehairi, the FCA director general and a member of the National Committee for Anti-Money Laundering, said policymakers in his agency were working to set nationwide standards for customs in line with IMF recommendations.

“What we’re doing is trying to build the capacity within each customs administration to do their job as best as possible,” said Mr Mehairi.

“Because we’re dealing with independent customs administrations we’re working on minimum requirements for all of them to meet. It’s not feasible for every emirate to be on the same level as Dubai, but we need to make some minimum requirements.”

The Detailed Assessment Report on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism, evaluated the UAE against 40 recommendations to counter money laundering and nine recommendations to discourage financing for terrorists.

While noting improvements since its first report on the issue in 2004, the IMF assessors advised UAE customs officials to apply the same rules regarding the import or export of large amounts cash to negotiable instruments such as personal cheques, travellers cheques and valuable commodities.

Mr Mehairi said demography and geography posed unique challenges to the emirates’ fight against money laundering.

Most visitors to the UAE come from less-developed countries with unsophisticated financial systems. As a result, the UAE is a largely cash-based society – which complicates efforts to restrict money laundering.

“We explained to [the IMF] and they understood. We are unique in that people are still dealing with cash in nearby countries,” he said. “They still don’t have a proper banking system in their countries, so they are dealing with cash all the time.”

The IMF report also advised the UAE to expand its list of “predicate offences” – the serious crimes, such as drug-dealing and prostitution, that are the origins of laundered cash. To do so, according to the report, might require the UAE to change some of the laws governing financial transactions and to standardise enforcement across the emirates.

“Implementation of the new standards in the UAE is largely dependent on having a robust legal framework in place which contains the key elements in law, regulation or other enforceable means,” the report said.

“Unfortunately, the good intentions of the authorities to implement measures consistent with the latest recommendations are hampered by inadequate and antiquated laws.”

While acknowledging the UAE’s efforts to improve its anti-money-laundering regime, the IMF assessors cited lax regulations on financial institutions to verify the identities of their customers – a practice known as customer due diligence – as a weakness in existing laws.

In response to the IMF’s criticism, the Central Bank tightened those restrictions last month, when it ordered small financial institutions, such as money exchanges, to register the details of customers who send money in excess of Dh2,000 (US$544), a marked decrease from the previous cap of Dh40,000.

The rules have not changed for banks, however, whose customers are still allowed to wire money up to the higher threshold without revealing details of their identity. For its part, the IMF recommends identity checks for transactions that exceed US$1,000.

Sultan al Suwaidi, the governor of the Central Bank, said in an interview last month that the UAE had already implemented most of the measures recommended by the IMF.

“This is because the awareness of banks is increased, the awareness in society is increased and appreciation for these efforts is increasing,” he said.

Abdulrahim al Awadi, the head of the anti-money-laundering and suspicious-cases unit at the Central Bank, declined to comment on the assessment.

The report also complained that the UAE’s various free zones and emirates lacked unifying legal regulations about money laundering.

While reporting requirements and enforcement in the Dubai International Financial Centre, the UAE’s financial free zone, were more consistent with the IMF’s recommendations, the assessment criticised “uneven regulation” in the domestic market and suggested that UAE authorities “ensure that prosecution of the money-laundering offence is more fully implemented in the emirates beyond Dubai”.

To date, according to the report, authorities have only prosecuted two money laundering cases outside of Dubai.

The report also criticised a dearth of “meaningful statistics” on financial crimes and the lack of regulations on the domestic securities and insurance markets, which the assessors said remained vulnerable to money launderers.

But Nigel Morris-Cotterill, the head of the Anti Money Laundering Network, said the IMF’s recommendations were an example of the “square peg, round hole” thinking.

“What we have to realise is that for different countries and different states there are different stages in developing counter money-laundering measures,” he said. “To expect someone who has recently come to the party to have the full development of the latest principles is unrealistic. That’s exactly how it has been in every other country that has been implementing counter money laundering.”

Meanwhile, the report praised the Government’s closer attention to hawala, the informal, trust-based system for transferring money across borders.

Since the September 11 attacks, the global hawala system has attracted scrutiny as a potential source of finance for terrorists. The UAE has added reporting requirements to what was once an almost entirely free remittances system. Since 2002, more than 260 hawaladars have registered their businesses, and more than 100 applications are pending.

Police give bad drivers just desserts

DUBAI - SEP. 28: Motorists caught for running a red light or other driving offences during Eid al Fitr are in for a sweet surprise when officers hand over their ticket.

Dubai Police are to repeat last year’s successful Eid initiative by giving away 20,000 boxes of chocolates to drivers who break the law over the three-day religious festival.

“Anyone who is stopped by police for committing a traffic violation in Eid should expect a gift,” said Col Saif Muhair al Mazrouei, deputy director of the traffic department.

The chocolates will be presented with a traffic awareness brochure outlining the dangers associated with different types of offences and a special message: “We wish you a happy Eid. Thank you for complying with traffic rules and regulations so that this season passes joyfully, with no traffic accidents or violations.”

“We tried it last year and it was very successful,” said Col Mazrouei. “People really appreciated it and most importantly have learnt from it.”

In the case of minor violations the chocolates will replace a fine, though there will be no leniency for more serious offences such as driving through a red light or reckless driving, he said.

Police have already started to prepare Dubai roads for Eid by blocking and closing down those streets and areas expected to become overcrowded during the annual shopping rush.

“There are more police patrols that have been dispatched, which will be working night and day,” said Col Mazrouei. “Streets have been closed down and alternative routes have been opened up to try and ease the crowding in the next few days as people shop for Eid.”

The closure is affecting several streets, including the market area in Khaled Bin Al Waleed, Al Satwa, Al Rigga and Al Rafaa roads, the Naif market, Al Waraqa Road and Al Awir area.

Col Mazrouei appealed to shoppers to do all they can to ease congestion and help people move about safely.

“We ask people to park in the distance and walk as there will be no entry to some areas in the next few days,” he said. “If possible, people with drivers should get dropped off and then have their driver return to pick them up later on. This will help keep fewer cars on the roads and will be less hassle for people to find parking.”

Cars carrying the elderly and those with special needs will be allowed to access the markets, he said.

The number of deaths during the busy Ramadan season has dropped considerably this year, something police credit to a new traffic law. So far in Abu Dhabi there have been 332 accidents, compared with 456 during Ramadan and Eid last year. Police said 12 people have died and 34 were seriously injured, compared with 35 deaths and 74 serious injuries last year.

In Dubai, there have been 17 fatalities compared to 34 during the same month last year, and 244 accidents.

The Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) announced that parking fees will be waived from tomorrow until Saturday.

Najib al Zarouni, director of RTA Traffic & Roads Agency’s parking department, said the parking fees were waived in line with an RTA strategy to participate in community events.

The Bur Dubai traffic department recorded 53,000 traffic violations and the seizure of 1,950 vehicles over the past month, after increased enforcement by Dubai Police.

“We are upgrading the performance of our traffic control and the application of the laws,” said Col Mazrouei. “We have intensified our traffic campaign with the aim of policing the road efficiently, and not being lenient with violators of the laws.”

He said the traffic control teams recorded a record 1,711 violations a day during August.

Col Mazrouei explained that traffic personnel have been focusing on implementing good traffic behaviour, which includes stopping drivers who are “not committed to the ethics and rules of traffic and transit,” he said.

From the start of the year until August, 35,409 violations were issued in absentia and another 17,637 violations were issued on the spot. There were 4,874 parking offences, 3,549 of which were for parking on the pavement. Police issued more than 600 fines to people driving with out-of-date licences.

Another 560 fines were handed out for driving on the hard shoulder and 480 for parking in private places or where it would cause a fire hazard.