Poorly trained and undisciplined private security guards in Qatar are often a source of insecurity. A major share of the private force are incompetent and are being exploited by the companies, a check out by The Peninsula in Qatar’s newly flourishing service sector has revealed. The workers are over-stressed, earning low salaries and forced to live in an overcrowded accommodation. The absence of a standardised wage is being largely exploited by smaller, unprofessional security companies; and the victims are often the semi-literate labour force that are being brought in here from Asian countries. A Doha-based chief of a highly reputed security service said the deployment of unprofessional in the field is causing multitudes of problems to the clients as well as the public. What some of the security companies in Doha doing is just putting the uniforms on some people on the very day of their arrival in a strange country. These people neither know the culture nor the language that majority of the people speak over here. This has often led to skirmishes at some shopping malls and offices, he said. “The security staff is supposed to be clean, smart, alert and closely monitor what’s happening around him. Ironically, many of the security guards in Qatar are on their duty with an ‘open eye and a closed’ mind”, said the official on condition of anonymity. It has been revealed that the security companies that deploy untrained staff are responsible for many recent accidents in Qatar. A major fire that broke out in the City recently is a case in point. “The security guard detected the fire immediately after it broke out. But he didn’t know how to use the fire extinguisher and how to respond to such emergencies. He wasted precious time before the inferno devoured the whole property”, said another expert in the field. Shops and business establishments must make sure whether the security firms that offer their service are providing the guards with proper training and decent living standards, said a national. “Only the people who understand local culture and language must be deployed in he Malls and retail shops where the public frequent in large numbers. It is ideal to offer security staff a crash course in the local culture before deploying them in the field”, he said. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=September2009&file=Local_News2009091431112.xml I think they're referring to G4S

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