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New measures from Sept to eliminate visa scams
DUBAI - Faced with the influx of unskilled and medically unfit workers from abroad, the UAE has chalked out a full-fledged plan to eliminate the visa racketeers and illegal human resource supply offices in the labour exporting countries, Dr Ali Abdullah Al Ka'abi, Minister of Labour, has disclosed.
- PUBLISHED: Wed 30 Aug 2006, 8:58 AM UPDATED: Sat 4 Apr 2015, 6:22 PM
In a phone call from Busan, South Korea where he is on an official visit heading a UAE delegation to participate in the International Labour Organisation (ILO)'s 14th Regional Asian Meeting (RAM) that commenced yesterday, Al Ka'abi said
that the government, beginning from September 1, will issue online labour contracts through competent bodies in the exporting countries, and not by the employers as was the case in the past sometimes.
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The hired employee, he said, will sign the employment contract in the presence of the representatives of the labour ministry of his country. A copy will be e-mailed to the UAE to be kept on record as an true copy of contractual document with the employee.
This step will eliminate the possibility of more than one labour contract with the same worker, Al Ka'abi noted.
He pointed out that visa racketeers had brought in workers who had to be imparted training in the UAE, though they were supposed to have such experience before being hired.
Al Ka'abi said the plan hammered out by the government had the twin objectives of tackling unscrupulous visa traders in their countries in a bid to nip the evil in the bud and monitoring the export of labourers.
In this context that an agreement was reached with the International Migration Organisation that it's offices in the Asian countries would conduct professional interviews of workers and get them tested medically as well before recruiting them.
He said that in many cases the overseas labour supply offices produce fictitious labour contracts before the workers arrive in the country, and then the local establishment for which the said worker was hired makes a different contract with different details in the name of the same employee.
Al Ka'abi said he will visit India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal this November to discuss with officials mutual cooperation in matters concerning export of labourers.
He will hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the conference with the representatives of labour exporting states.