Jassim Al Bannai, Deputy Director of the Labour Relations Department, yesterday disclosed a number of inhuman and illegal practices by some employers who try to exploit the workers and pressurise them as soon as they enter the country.

Stressing that the ministry was capable to curb some of the practices, Mr Al Bannai pointed to the measures adopted by some establishments which force their employees to sign the cancellation papers of their visas as soon as they enter the country "so that the employers can pressurise these workers and can deport them whenever they want," he observed clarifying that such cases are limited.

Another inhuman practice is ridding the expatriate workers of their dues before they even receive them, by forcing them to sign documents to the effect that they have received their end of service dues while they have not. 

"My sponsor brought a set of papers one day, all in Arabic and he asked us to sign. When we enquired about the contents of the papers, he said that they were for some labour procedures. Under pressure, and as he wanted the signature immediately and he did not give us enough time to take copies of them and check what they really were, we signed them. But we discovered at a later stage that they were the cancellation papers, "said a Filipina waitress at a restaurant in Dubai. Mr Al Bannai commented that the ministry has received complaints from workers claiming that they have signed such documents during the course of their work with the company.

"The Labour Relations Department usually summons the sponsor to face him with such claims, and if it is proved to us that he never granted the employees the said benefits and that he does not plan to do so, we register the complaint and take the required procedures to solve the problem amicably or refer it to the competent court,"Mr Al Bannai said.