Massage cards rain in Barsha, and it's over 100,000 a day!

More than 100,000 massage business cards are being cleaned up everyday from Barsha to Barsha Heights, cleaners have estimated.

The cleaners in both the areas shared their frustration with Khaleej Times of having to pick up tens of thousands of massage cards, with inappropriate pictures of women on them, on a daily basis.

An Indian cleaner in Barsha 2, Abdul Salaam Abdul Sathar, said that he and his team of 12 cleaners in the area pick up "more than 50,000" massage cards every day. These cards often display images of half naked women and a phone number. They are known to offer illicit services.

"We start before 7am and most of our job is just picking up massage cards all day long. We take them off from cars and from the ground. The car owners throw the cards on the ground, but we are the ones cleaning them up.

"It's really difficult and what's worse is that we are doing the same thing everyday - picking up thousands of cards. When will these distributors stop?"

Sathar said that they fill at least eight big trash bags with massage cards each day.

"During Ramadan, the distributors usually stop, but there's always a few cards here and there that still need to be picked up. Eid will be one of the worst times of the year. The whole area will be filled," he said. "It's men from Africa who are seen placing these cards."

Narinder Nayak, an Indian cleaner in Barsha Heights, formerly known as Tecom, shared a similar story with Khaleej Times, expressing his frustration at cleaning up more than 50,000 massage cards every day from 6am to 3pm. By next morning, the area is filled with cards again.

Last year, cleaners in Barsha Heights had released images of a truck filled with bags of massage cards that had been picked up.

"It's a big struggle cleaning an entire community that has been littered with massage cards. It's almost as if tons of people throw a wild party everyday and we are the ones to clean what's left behind," Nayak said. "The cards are more than 50,000, or even 60,000.

"This area is really big and there are lots of parking lots with many cars. There are some groups of Chinese men whom the security guards caught placing these cards. They were asked to leave, but they keep coming back."

Residents also complained that they are fed up of removing, sometimes 20 massage cards, from their car windows. Ramiz Khan, a restaurant manager who works in Barsha Heights, said he removes at least 10 cards from his car every day.

"If my children are with me, I make them wait a bit far from the car until I remove all the cards first. I don't want them to see these images on them," he said. "I'm glad it's not that bad in Ramadan, at least."

sarwat@khaleejtimes.com