The Hindu : International : 70,000 Indians avail of UAE amnesty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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International

International

70,000 Indians avail of UAE amnesty

Atul Aneja

Gulf countries consider imposing six-year ceiling for blue collar workers

DUBAI: The first major step by authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to regulate the flow of expatriate labour and improve their working conditions has been taken with the exit of a large number of illegal workers from the country.

The three-month amnesty that allowed illegal workers to leave the country or to get their services regularised expired on November 3. According to Colonel Nasser Al Awadh Al Mnihali, Director of Abu Dhabi Naturalisation Department, around 3,41,958 persons availed of the amnesty. Out of these, 95,859 managed to “adjust their status” and stayed back. However, 2,46,699 were issued departure permit facilitating their exit without any penalty.

Reabsorbed

There were 70,000 Indians who availed themselves of the amnesty, out of which around 40,000 have been reabsorbed into the workforce, the Indian ambassador to the UAE, Talmiz Ahmad, has said.

The UAE authorities said that other steps were in the offing that would benefit both employers and employees. For instance, the UAE will open labour offices in India as well as the Philippines to recruit workers. The UAE Minister of Labour, Ali bin Abdullah Al Ka’abi made this announcement last month following a meeting with the Minister for Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi.

The labour offices would also be given the task of acquainting the prospective employees with the UAE’s labour laws as well as its cultural aspects. The move is expected to weaken the hold of the recruiting agents who have, in the past, been accused to duping gullible blue collar workers.

The six Gulf countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are also meeting later this month to consider a six-year ceiling for blue collar workers residing in these countries. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman are member of the GCC. Faced with incidents of labour unrest over salaries, the UAE government is also reviewing the salary structure, especially of construction workers.

The UAE Cabinet has asked the construction companies to urgently furnish new proposals on salaries. More than 2,000 workers were involved in a major protest late last month over salaries on the outskirts of Dubai.