On the ground lie bottles of vodka, whiskey and beer, partially buried in the sand.
Hidden behind parked cars, piles of scrap metal and abandoned trucks, men stagger in the dark next to illegal alcohol sellers who serve customers who pay in cash.
Some 20km (12 miles) south of the glitzy and ultra-modern capital of Qatar, Doha, stands the Industrial Area.
It is one of the most important parts of the prosperous Gulf state but rarely features on the tourist trail, nor attracts outside visitors.
The prosaically-named Industrial Area and nearby Labour City is home to a large number of Qatar’s total population. Up to 800,000 Asian and African workers, mainly employed as construction workers and security guards, live packed in overcrowded accommodation, far out of sight from the Qatari capital’s affluent neighbourhoods.
Work is tough, many here are not paid on time and some are harassed by their employers, yet they form the backbone of the blossoming Qatari economy. Here, they drink to forget. Alcohol sales in Qatar are strictly regulated, yet, illegal networks exist to sell regular or homemade liquor to migrant workers in search of an escape.
Ugandese security agent Albert*, 29, landed in Qatar four years ago and has regularly seen those attending the Industrial Zone’s illicit alcohol market, known among workers as “California”, or “The Field”.
“A lot of workers here get hooked on alcohol and never fully recover. Every Thursday night, fights break out because guys come back to their dorms drunk. In the summer, workers often die of heatstroke after falling asleep outside drunk after an evening at The Field,” he tells The Independent.
Thursday nights are important as it is the evening before the one day most workers will not have to work in the week.
“Please, friend, do you have something for me?” asks a trembling barefoot man dressed in a shabby sweater. “Sorry, I am broke this month,” replies Albert.
“Another worker who is no longer paid by his company and fell into alcohol,” he says quietly, recalling numerous suicide attempts among foreign workers in the Industrial Area.
A few minutes later, police are spotted. People scatter.
“The red car you see there belongs to Internal Security forces, they show up from time to time to seize stocks of alcohol. But the black SUVs belong to police forces, and they primarily look for drugs,” he explains.
From afar, Albert witnesses Qataris dressed in white thobes – men’s traditional attire in the Gulf region – and equipped with flashlights to inspect abandoned vehicles, pulling out several plastic bags and placing them in their car boots.
Workers who fled hide close to The Field, patiently waiting for the police to leave.
Doha’s Industrial Area
“If they catch you with alcohol, they just grab cans and bottles before telling you to go away. They have a nickname for us: kachara [garbage in Arabic]. But the reality is that they don’t really fight against this traffic of alcohol. Qataris want to keep us as low as possible to show us what our lives are worth: nothing,” he says.
Albert’s friend, Dominic, is bedridden at nearby Asian City.
He sleeps in a cluttered room with four beds, four wardrobes and a few personal belongings hung here and there.
Both of Dominic’s ankles were broken after a work-related accident. Despite multiple surgeries, the Kenyan security agent still struggles at work where he is required to stay standing up for several hours straight.
Discarded drinks
Ahmed Hussain al-Khalaf
