Zabbaleen

"The government said that it was no longer acting just to prevent swine flu, but that it was carrying out part of a plan to clean up the zabaleen, to finally get them to live in sanitary conditions. Egypt has tried this before. Several years ago the government tried to hire private companies to collect the trash. But the waste of Cairo overwhelmed the private companies, and little changed for the zabaleen." (Thanks D.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/world/middleeast/25oink.html?_r=1&emc=eta1