UAE to stamp out illegal recruitment practices

The scheme aims to stamp out extortionate recruitment fees paid by migrant workers to agencies in their home countries.

The UAE Ministry of Labour is working alongside the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on a pilot project aimed at stamping out unlawful recruitment practices.

The scheme is intended to ensure that correct and legal recruitment procedures are followed in countries from which large numbers of UAE-based migrant labourers originate.

“There are certain practices that have been perpetrated in the countries of origin,” said UAE Minister of Labour Saqr Ghobash at a seminar on labour and human rights hosted by the Ministry yesterday.

“We must cooperate with these [countries] in order to eliminate such practices.”

Ghobash added that the pilot project will be operated in tandem with both the Philippines and India.

“We are working with the ILO to establish this project, and then we will begin cooperation with the other countries,” he said.

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According to some reports, migrant workers have been subjected to extortionate recruitment fees in their countries of origin, which they are told their UAE-based employers will refund.

It has been claimed that recruitment agents who undertake such illegal practices avoid penalties by targeting areas in countries of origin where high rates of illiteracy exist.

“There will be guidelines that have to be respected by the country of origin,” Ghobash said. “If they do not meet the guidelines they have to be accountable to us.

“We will be working with companies and other agencies to ensure that such standards are accepted by the countries of origin.”

Meanwhile, Ghobash also unveiled the Ministry’s plans to ensure the prompt and accurate payment of construction worker’s salaries.

“We have a measure that will lead to the electronic transfer of salaries of labourers,” Ghobash said. “We will be protecting their salaries from any kinds of abuse.”

The Ministry is working “in correlation with UAE central banks” to bring the plan to fruition, though Ghobash added it would be “months” before the scheme was fully implemented.

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