Dubai: The Permanent Committee for Labour Affairs (PCLA) has launched a year-long campaign to inform Dubai residents, especially unskilled workers, about their rights and duties.

The campaign, which began this week, is being carried out in collaboration with Zajel Courier Services, which will distribute brochures to people renewing or applying for new residency visas. The brochures are also being distributed with the results of the medical fitness test.

The brochures will be distributed with passports and will be sent via the Zajel service. The brochure aims to enlighten residents about the proper ways to obtain their rights.

The brochures contain an explanation of some crimes and punishments, in addition to the Dubai Police operations room hotline 901 and the PCLA toll-free number 8009119.

Major General Obaid Mohair Bin Surour, deputy director-general of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai and chairman of the PCLA , said: “We want to encourage workers to communicate with the PCLA or other concerned authorities. We want them to know that they have to abide by the laws and that the government is working to protect their rights.”

According to Khawla Kabanji, chief executive officer of Zajel Courier Services, thousands of brochures have been distributed in less than two days.

The brochures are printed in English, Arabic and Urdu. “The focus is distributing the brochures to unskilled workers or those with a lower level of education, such as labourers and domestic helpers,” she said.

“Zajel is delivering at least 10,000 passports a day to residents, including the issuance of a new residency or renewal of residence, in addition to delivering the medical fitness certificates.”

Khawla said that some passports will be delivered to either the applicant, sponsor or the company who applied for worker visas. In such cases, the sponsor or the company’s representative will be responsible to distribute the brochures to the workers.

Abdul Monem Mubarak Al Medawi, coordinator of PCLA in Dubai, urged sponsors and companies to cooperate and ensure the campaign’s success.