• Home

MoL formulates taskforce for contractual workers

The focus would be on workers from India and Philippines out of the federal government vision to enforce recommendations issued by Ministerial Consultations on Overseas Employment and Contractual Labour for Countries of Origin and Destination in Asia (Abu Dhabi Dialogue) in January 2008.

The team is made up of government and private sector representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, interior and health, Dubai Health Authority, Jumeirah Group, Al Naboodah Construction Group, Abu Dhabi National Hotels, Associated Construction & Investments Company LLC (ASCON), Al Nour Hospital and NMC Specialty Hospital.

Labour Minister Saqr Gobash affirmed the importance of the project in finding a more safe, transparent and internationally recognised mechanism for importing workforce.

“We are keen to introduce new creative solutions to arrive at a joint declaration for participating countries in the “Abu Dhabi Dialogue” based on the best practices so as to be an official reference for regulating relationship between sending and receiving countries of temporary contractual workers.

Countries and NGOs which took part in the Global Forum on Migration and Development last month in Athens recognised the diverse models of migration and called for taking into consideration the specialty of each country in drafting workers’ rights standards and protection of these rights.

In his address to the opening plenary session of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Athens last month, Gobash stressed the need to acknowledge that migratory patterns are very diverse and that policy responses must, in consequence be flexible and adaptable.

“Given the nature of its labour market needs, the UAE has a particular interest in models of migration that are labour-oriented and of a temporary or circular nature. Nevertheless, it recognizes that there is much that can be learned from good practices deriving from other, and sometimes very different models of migration.

“The important thing for us is not to play up the differences between migration models to suggest that “we have our unique circumstances and you have yours” but rather to promote a common and better understanding of the various contexts and particularities that need to be taken into account in the development of sound policy,” he said.

• UAE