An Abu
Dhabi labour camp run by the UAE’s Al Jaber Group has been charged with food
safety violations after more than 200 labourers fell ill with suspected food
poisoning.
More than
40 labourers were hospitalised after consuming rice from an on-site catering
unit described by the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority as “functioning in utterly squalid conditions,
violating all norms of hygiene and disregarding the health consequences for the
labourers.”
Inspectors found
cockroach-infested drinking water, the mixing of raw meat, fish and vegetables
and cooked food housed next to open dustbins, ADFCA said in a statement.
The catering unit,
which was unlicensed, was supplying food to around 2,200 workers.
“This utter disregard for the law of the land… is shocking,” said Mohamed Jalal
Al Reyaysa, director of communications at ADFCA. “[This] will not go
unpunished.”
Al Jaber
Group, one of the UAE’s largest construction conglomerates, said more than a
hundred labourers had been treated at Madinat Zayed Hospital for symptoms of severe food poisoning.
“In more
than two decades of operation, and serving 150,000 meals a day all over the
UAE, this is the first instance of food poisoning at any of our camps,” a
spokesperson for the company said.
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