The minister in charge of the labour market has said illegal workers and their sponsors will face the full force of the law.
"The ministry is serious in implementing the Labour Law and other related resolutions and penalties will be imposed on workers who break the laws, their sponsors and those who recruit them illegally," Dr Ali Abdullah Al Ka'abi, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, told Gulf News yesterday.
"The ministry will have zero tolerance for these violations and instructions have been given to officials of Labour Relations departments to bring all workers who break the laws to justice," he said.
Employers recruiting workers illegally face a fine of Dh10,000 and/or a jail term of six months.
"The ministry, in conjunction with the residency departments, will crackdown on companies to ensure all laws related to bringing in and recruiting workers are observed," Dr Al Ka'abi said.
The minister was commenting on a case in which Munir Mohammad Mu-stafa, a Syrian teacher, was sentenced to two months in jail, followed by deportation for working for an employer other than his sponsor.
The Abu Dhabi Residency Court also fined Mahmoud Atiya Ebrahim, a Jordanian, Dh10,000 for recruiting a worker not on his sponsorship. The teacher's sponsor, Mahmoud Saleh, a UAE national, received the same fine.
As published in Gulf News last month, Mustafa who had been working as substitute teacher, beat a 13-year-old student, leaving welts on his body.
Mustafa barged into a Grade 7 class at the Creative Scientific Private School in Abu Dhabi and started hitting the boy nearest to him to quieten the class.
His victim was Mohammad Mahfouz, a student who has stood first in his class for five years.
The school's management fired the teacher immediately after hearing of the incident from the student's classmates.
A complaint against the teacher and his recruiter was lodged with the Labour Inspection Department, which investigated it and filed a case with the court, which issued the previous ruling.
