UAE and India to link labour platforms

Abu Dhabi: India and the UAE have launched an interlinking of labour platforms and a joint skills harmonisation programme, an Indian minister told the Indian community in Abu Dhabi late on Thursday.

V. Muraleedharan, India’s Minister of State for External and Parliamentary Affairs, addressed the matter in a gathering of Indian expats in the capital’s India Social and Cultural Centre (ISC).

“India and the UAE launched two very important initiatives aimed at labour welfare - the interlinking of the labour platforms of the two countries and the joint skills harmonisation programme,” the minister said of Wednesday’s Abu Dhabi Dialogue discussions between Asian countries, which involved India’s presence via the minister in high-level talks with the UAE’s Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, Nasser Bin Thani Al Hamli.

“Inter-relation of labour platforms will help strengthen the joint oversight and recruitment process, making it transparent and more effective. We will also be able to curb some mallpractices like contract substitution and the activities of some unscrupulous agents,” he added.

The minister also reiterated that the government would take up the issue of nurses who are on the verge of losing their jobs here in the UAE due to new qualification requirements by the UAE government. 

Senior diplomats from the Indian missions in the UAE including Smita Pant, Charge D’affairs of the Indian Embassy and people from the Indian business community including MA Yousuf Ali, chairman of the Lulu Group International, were also present at the gathering.