UAE committed to protecting rights of foreign workforce

Athens: The UAE is very conscious of the contribution contractual workers make to its economy.

In return, it is committed to protecting their rights and empowering them to fully benefit from their residency in the country, UAE Labour Minister Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash said on Wednesday.

"We would like to open an honest debate about the nature and scope of essential social services that could and ought reasonably to be provided to temporary migrant workers, bearing in mind the cost-benefit implications for all involved," Gobash told the opening plenary session of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Athens, Greece.

The Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) is an annual international meeting for voluntary, non-binding and informal discussion which investigates the methods through which migration may contribute towards development goals.

The GFMD was held in Brussels in 2007 and in Manila in 2008. This year, the gathering is being held under the theme ‘Integrating migration policies into development strategies for the benefit of all.'

Gobash said forum participants needed 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 recognises that there is much that can be learned from good practices deriving from other, and sometimes very different models of migration.

Common ground

"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.

"We need to weigh up the costs and benefits of migration from the standpoint of all stakeholders if we are to make migration truly beneficial to all. It goes without saying that, in the course of doing so, the fundamental human rights of all people are not to be considered negotiable."