Labour MoU to stop dodgy middlemen

Dubai: A labour agreement to be signed between the UAE and four Asian countries will leave no room for middlemen to exploit labourers, diplomats said on Wednesday.

Countries receiving and sending workers will have a clear understanding of the structures that are in place to ensure that there is no exploitation of labourers, they said, following the initiative taken by the UAE to ensure a security cover for expatriate workers.

On Tuesday, ambassadors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka received the final draft of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from Dr Ali Bin Abdullah Al Ka'abi, UAE Minister of Labour.

The MoU which is scheduled to be signed between the four Asian countries and the UAE by the end of this year aims to regulate the entry of foreign workforce. Al Ka'abi is scheduled to visit the four Asian countries at the end of this month.

Diplomatic figures show that there are 1.3 million Indians in the UAE, about 732,000 Pakistanis, 500,000 Bangladeshis and 160,000 Sri Lankans.

"The focus of our dialogue is on labour welfare and providing an effective mechanism for a quick resolution to labour disputes. It will be a single window resolution," said Chandra Mohan Bhandari, Indian ambassador.

Bhandari said the UAE wants to give priority to reputed recruitment agencies. The UAE wants to provide sufficient information in vernacular languages.

He said: "This is to educate workers in advance before coming to the UAE. We received a draft of the MoU yesterday and it has been forwarded to New Delhi."

Ahsan Ullah Khan, Pakistan ambassador and Special Envoy to the Middle East, welcomed the MoU and called it a positive development. He said the MoU will go a long way to providing security and comfort to the expatriate workforce in the UAE.

"In the past, workers were not aware of their obligations and responsibilities. They were exploited ... they were not receiving promised wages. The MoU, once signed, will change all that. It will safeguard the foreign workforce from falling prey to unscrupulous recruitment agents and middlemen."

Nazimullah Chowdary, ambassador of Bangladesh, said the MoU leaves no room for the middleman to manipulate workers.

He said: "Presently many of the workers are not aware of their rights and obligations. But not anymore as under the MoU contracts will be signed in vernacular languages."

Mohammad Nabavi Junaid, Sri Lanka's ambassador, said: "The aim of the MoU is to make workers' lives as well as their living conditions better. I do not think that any other foreign country has taken up such measures for their foreign workforce."