UAE | Government
Housemaids rush to meet amnesty deadline
Absconding housemaids are flooding recruitment agencies to take advantage of the amnesty, return their passports and go back home, agents said.
- By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:43 August 10, 2007
- Large numbers of absconding housemaids are now hurrying to take advantage of the amnesty by asking for their passports. This picture is for illustrative purposes only.
- Image Credit: Bassma Al Jandaly/Gulf News
Dubai: Absconding housemaids are flooding recruitment agencies to take advantage of the amnesty, return their passports and go back home, agents said.
Some come back to the agencies to try and transfer their sponsorship.
The authorities have started the countdown to the end of the amnesty which ends in three weeks. The Interior Ministry is now urging the public through billboards installed on the side of the roads, to cooperate with the authorities and inform them about any illegal residents.
Brigadier Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director General of the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department, had earlier said that around 70, 000 illegal workers hade obtained outpasses and 45,000 have got their residency status legalised.
Working hours
Many absconding housemaids now are rushing to take advantage of the amnesty and recruitment agencies are saying they are receiving large numbers of absconding housemaids.
"I cannot do any work now. We are spending our working hours responding to absconded housemaids. Some of them have been here for more than six or seven years working illegally," said Wafa who runs Qurtoba recruitment agency in Ajman.
She wondered where they have been all these years and how they managed to hide from the authorities. Manal who works at Al Dawli recruitment agency in Sharjah, said most of the absconding housemaids are Ethiopian, Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi.
"They are coming now to us. They ran away from their sponsors and vanished years ago and could not be traced. They are coming now to ask for their passports. Their passports have been handed over to their embassies and consulates," she said.
Muna who works at the same agency, said her mobile phone keeps ringing with calls. "In the first two months of the amnesty we did not see or hear from them [absconding housemaids], but now a large number of them are coming to us," she said.
Farhan, a government employee, said their housemaid had absconded since 2000 and now she has called them asking for her passport back, saying she wishes to work legally elsewhere.
A well-dressed young Ethiopian housemaid also came to the recruitment agency accompanied by a man, a compatriot, asking for her passport.
Share this article
More from UAE Government
More from UAE
Popular in UAE
-
Have your say
Living in untidy homes
Do you think that people who live in untidy homes have bad character?
Latest news
- Fog sweeps the UAE
- Emirati students in US set to rise
- No friends of mother Earth
- Tussle on for tertiary students
- Faded parking lines pose a problem
- UAE to announce H1N1 vaccination campaign
- Focus on best methods of crime investigation
- Benefits of pill-sized camera displayed
- Prosecutions need to adopt new technologies
- Big decline in robberies in Dubai
- Ministry to shut down typing centres
- Car stickers to identify new drivers on road
- So what will it take to float Gulf News' boat?
- Arab world's future is with solar energy
- Desalination faces 'severe' challenges
Community Reports
-
Faded parking lines pose a problem
Motorists could be fined for parking incorrectly even though they can hardly see the boundaries in the designated areas
-
School buses block residential parking
Commercial vehicles taking up free parking facilities in Al Wuheida, inconveniencing residents in surrounding villas
-
Community report: Doing their bit for poor children
A group of students takes concrete action to raise funds for Dubai Cares
-
Surprising truth of 'abandoned cars'
An Abu Dhabi resident believes that some mechanics are using parking spaces as rent-free workshops
