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Sharjah: Residents say they were not given any opportunity to collect their belongings before the municipality demolished 10 old houses in the Al Sharqiya area on Thursday.
They said bulldozers tore down the homes as they stood by and watched helplessly. They were not allowed to take their possessions. Police had accompanied the bulldozers, they said.
The families who had been occupying these homes for many years included Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians and others of Asian origin.
They are mostly lower middle class families.
A widow, Zainab, who lived in one of the houses with her two teenage daughters, said she had kept some goats and sheep and earned her living selling their milk and meat.
"I have been living here for the past 30 years. I have no place to go. No money to rent another house. The power and water were switched off several days ago," she said.
She said they had received evacuation notices many times in the past, but had nowhere else to go. She said she approached the municipality several times asking for help but was ignored.
Khan, who was living in another home, works as a taxi driver. He said he cannot afford rent anywhere else.
"I begged the municipal inspector to let me collect my belongings, but was refused. I was warned if I stepped into my house I would be jailed," he said. He has been living under a tree near his demolished house for the past few days.
He too said the municipality had served notices earlier and electricity and water were cut to force residents out.
Ali, another resident, said: "The problem is that we have no place to go."
A municipal spokesperson said residents had been given many chances to relocate during the past two years.
"They completely ignored the warnings," he said.
He said other houses in the area will also be demolished because they are very old and may collapse.
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