UAE | Government

UAE vows to continue labour market reforms

The UAE has drafted a set of laws and regulations ensuring that guest workers in the country are temporary, not permanent immigrants, they do not leave their countries to immigrate and live permanently in the UAE, but come according to temporary work contracts to perform specific jobs, a senior UAE official told the United Nations.

  • WAM
  • Published: 00:00 September 16, 2006
  • Gulf News

  • Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi. the UAE Minister of Labour said external remittances amount to $22 billion (about Dh80.8 billion) annually.
  • Image Credit: Gulf News Archive

New York: The UAE has drafted a set of laws and regulations ensuring that guest workers in the country are temporary, not permanent immigrants, they do not leave their countries to immigrate and live permanently in the UAE, but come according to temporary work contracts to perform specific jobs, a senior UAE official told the United Nations.

"Such an arrangement had been made according to mechanisms and procedures based on terms agreed on by countries exporting and importing labour, and are ratified by the International Migration Organisation.

"The arrangement proved to have positive outcomes ... on the economy of both parties," said Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi, UAE Minister of Labour, in a statement on Thursday to the General Assembly High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development.

"The UAE has drafted laws and regulations to regulate entry, residence and work of foreigners in the country, ensuring the protection of their rights in accordance with national laws and international treaties on labour and human rights.

"Of the most prominent measures taken by the government in this field is the Federal Law issued last year by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, regulating the use of children in camel racing. It prohibited employing children from both sexes, under the age of 18 in any form of camel racing and subjected violators to severe penalties.

"Another new measure was taken in July, demanding construction companies to allow two-hour break at noon for labourers who work in the sun during July and August every year," he said.

"The UAE continues to update and reform its present laws and adding new regulations to meet new developments and changes in its labour market and in the volume and diversity of the expatriate workforce.

"Such laws aim to define rights and duties of labourers within the requirements of the general economic and social goals while taking into consideration national and international commitments as well as ensuring a stable political environment in which we can achieve desired economic transformations that would ensure the utmost benefits for all stakeholders."

According to Al Ka'abi, external remittances amount to $22 billion (about Dh80.8 billion) annually. The expatriate labour force represents about 90 per cent of the work force in the UAE.

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