Dubai Municipality drive against illegal posters

If you are an employer looking to fill a vacancy, or a real estate agent eager to rent out a shared bed or studio somewhere in Dubai, without paying the cost of a newspaper classified ad, walls are your best bet. A walk around the neighborhoods of Deira, Bur Dubai, Karama and Satwa reveal posters, pamphlets and handwritten notes pasted on building walls, lamp posts and even temporary pavement boards, offering jobs and accommodations.

However, those looking for such free lunches have to be careful now as residents caught sticking advertisement posters on walls in public places will face a Dh200 fine as part of a new campaign by Dubai Municipality to clean up the emirate.

Hundreds of volunteers and officials from Dubai Municipality took to the streets this morning to tear down flyers advertising everything from accommodation and job vacancies to massage centres.

The week-long campaign also aims to stop people sticking the posters up in the first place. Four teams of undercover inspectors will call the contact telephone numbers displayed on many of the posters, arrange to meet the person who answers and then issue a fine.

According to the National, Karama, Satwa, Deira and Al Qusais had been identified as areas with the highest density of posters and stickers.