613 expatriates have been arrested since May as part of a government crackdown on people working in Qatar illegally, according to the Gulf Times. 

“The Search and Follow up Department (SFD) is continuing its inspection drive to book violators of the law that regulates the entry and exit of expatriates and to take legal procedures against them in order to end the problem of absconding and illegal workforce” says Search and Follow up Department (SFD) Director Col Nasser Mohamed al-Sayed.  “Many offenders who have given shelter to absconding maids and those supplied them on a hourly basis to different employers have also been booked.”

Meanwhile, the government has announced that there have been over one thousand violations of the law banning accommodation for labourers in residential areas. 

The Gulf Times reports that 421 lodgings (both camps and buildings) have already been forced to close, and 676 are due to be closed in the coming months. 

Credit: Photo by Habeeb Abu-Futtaim