Ministry failed to meet us: Watchdog

Dubai: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has blamed the Ministry of Labour for failing to meet researchers and activists of the organisation while they were investigating the situation of foreign labourers in the UAE.

Lance Lattig, Media Editor, said officials from the Ministry of Labour did not reply to Human Rights Watch's letter that requested clarification of 13 points. The letter was sent to the ministry on June 14 after the fact-finding mission failed to interview the minister in February.

Instead of replying directly to the HRW, Lattig said the organisation received a clarification from Abdul Aziz Nasser Al Shamsi, Ambassador and permanent representative of the UAE to the United Nations.

"The letter dated Sep-tember 28 primarily focused on the need to replace the term migrant workers with temporary workers," he said.

According to the Ministry of Labour, workers come to the UAE on fixed term contracts for certain purposes. The 95th session of the International Labour Conference held in Geneva in June agreed to consider foreign workers in the GCC as temporary workers.

Lattig welcomed the recent actions taken by the UAE government including setting up labour courts and curbing exploitation of workers. He said there were still two issues that needed to be addressed by the UAE government, which include fixing a minimum wage for labourers based on, and revised, in accordance with the cost of living in the country and legalising the representation of workers in labour organisations.

He praised the UAE in its efforts to solve the issue of camel jockeys and the decree issued by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan regarding banning human trafficking.

"The UAE seems to be sincere in streamlining its laws in accordance with the human rights rules," he said.