Expats face swine flu ban after holidays abroad - Healthcare - ArabianBusiness.com

Expats face swine flu ban after holidays abroad - Healthcare - ArabianBusiness.com: "Expats face swine flu ban after holidays abroad"
Expatriates in the UAE on holiday abroad will have to produce a medical certificate proving they are not infected with swine flu before returning to the country, according to a report on Tuesday.From August, any person with swine flu symptoms without the certificate would be refused entry to the UAE , said a source from the National Committee for Combating Swine Flu.

“Accordingly, any company or establishment will have the right to cancel sponsorship if the worker conceals an infection intentionally," the unnamed source was quoted as saying in a report by UAE daily Gulf News.The step was part of strict measures needed to contain the H1N1 virus, the source added.Quarantining people infected with the virus and not allowing them to come into contact with others in public locations such as markets, malls, cinemas and worship areas was vital to curbing the spread of the virus, the source said.The National Committee for Combating Swine Flu is a government organisation set up to fight the spread of the virus.

Dual residency backed by GCC immigration chiefs

Moves to introduce dual residency for professional expatriates living in the GCC have been officially backed by the Gulf’s immigration chiefs, at a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The reccomendation will now be sent to each government and if approved would see all expatriates with “first degrees”, such as doctors, engineers, businessmen and lawyers, being free to live and work in all six Gulf states without having to gain new residency permits. This would make it easier for companies to deploy staff to different offices in the region, agreed delegates at the 24th meeting of the GCC director generals of naturalisation and residency departments.

Acting director general of the UAE's Ministry of Interior Naturalisation and Residency Department said he strongly supported the move in an interview with UAE daily Khaleej Times.Brigadier Nassir Al Awadi Al Menhali told the newspaper the UAE was already studying how to implement the system."The UAE supports all the ways to facilitate the expatriates and nationals movement among the GCC countries," Al Menhali said.However, it would be up to each country to set up agreements with other Gulf states to establilsh double residency visas, he added."The GCC director-generals agreed that the GCC residents can enter as usual under the current laws, while each country has the right to approve the mutual residency with the other countries, according to the naturalisation and residency laws and regulations," he explained.GCC residents looking for new jobs would also be allowed to enter other Gulf states on visit visas, before securing employment, he said. "We allow the GCC residents to enter the country on visit visa(s) in accordance to the naturalisation and residency law, and in case of finding a job they can apply to get the residency." Roll-out across the GCC of the e-link immigration system set up between the UAE and Oman was also in the process of being finalised, said Colonel Ahmed Fahd Bu Hindi, deputy secretary general of security affairs at the General Secretariat of GCC.

New visa law 'soon' for Dubai property buyers

A new law that would clarify the rules on issuing residency visas to property buyers in Dubai could be introduced this year, it was reported on Wednesday.

Business leaders say they have raised the issue with government officials who have told them that new regulations will be brought in "soon".

"We believe this has to be cleared. We raised it to the government and the government came back and said there is a law that will come very soon and we feel it has to come," said Hamad Buamim, director general of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry."The law will clarify who deserves a visa in terms of their investment in the real estate. We don't know when it will be out but the government says it will be soon. I think soon means within this year," he told the paper.

Previously, most real estate advertisements boasted of 99-year visa for purchase of freehold property but officials say such guarantees are not within the jurisdiction of any property firm.


Dubai: In a bid to improve the conditions of labourers, the UAE is set to introduce new rules regarding their accommodation and a mechanism for electronic payment of their salaries.

"Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of UAE, will sign a draft resolution on criteria for workers' accommodation," Labour Minister Saqr Ghobash said on Monday. "The requirements will be circulated to all municipalities across the country so as to enforce them on housing facilities of workers," the minister told a seminar on Labour and Human Rights here. "The criteria will provide adequate hygienic and humane conditions for the comfort of workers. The government will not accept less than those conditions," he affirmed.

The minister said electronic payment of workers' salaries will be implemented in the next few weeks. "This will be made possible through a joint initiative between the ministry, banks, money exchange houses and the Central Bank of the UAE," he said. "The project, a core element in the ministry's strategy, will prevent delays in payment of salaries. About 500,000 workers will benefit from this project, he said.

Gobash also announced the Ministry had issued 662,000 labour cards and cancelled 405,000 in the six months from October 2008 up to March 2009. "This means incoming workers continued to outnumber departing peers. The workforce rose by 27 and 32 per cent in 2007 and 2008 respectively," he said.

UAE Labour Law - Gratuity Calculation

As per Article (132) of the UAE Federal Labour Law, and in respect to the end-of-service gratuity we quote the following: A worker who has completed a period of one or more years of continuous service shall be entitled to severance pay on the termination of his employment. The days of absence from work without pay shall not be included in calculating the period of service. The severance pay shall be calculated as follows: 21 days' remuneration for each year of the first five years of service. Thirty days' remuneration for each additional year of service provided that the aggregate amount of severance pay shall not exceed two years' remuneration.

UAE work visas- the grace period for cancelled visa may be extended

Individuals whose work visas have been cancelled, following redundancy, may soon be able to stay in the UAE for a longer period of time to find work, according to a report in Emirates Business.At present, UAE labour and immigration laws require expats who have lost their jobs, to find work within one month - or leave.The newspaper quoted Hani Rashid Al Hamli, Dubai Economic Council (DEC) Secretary-General, who said Dubai, along with the federal government, is "working on" stretching the grace period for holders of cancelled visas. The length of the likely extension wasn’t given.

The report added that the new policy, which may be announced in the first half of this year, is expected to address the potential cases of job cuts due to the financial crisis. "This is one of the top and urgent issues that we are tackling at the Dubai branch and at the federal level - to have a longer (grace) period. They are working on that, I can assure you of that," Al Hamli told the newspaper. Al Hamli, when asked whether the new policy would take affect in the second half of the year, indicated it would be earlier than that, perhaps in one month or two months, although he couldn’t go into specifics due to the government having to upgrade the immigration laws, which will take a measure of time

Residency visa clarity to boost realty sector

Resolving issues linked to the residency status of expatriate property purchasers will provide a floor to the Dubai realty market, according to a new report."Measures such as a removal of the current link between employment and residency status, and a clarification of the law providing for residency for expatriate purchasers may be required to provide a floor to the market," Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a real estate advisory firm, said in a report titled "Dubai City Profile – A Review of the Dubai Property Market."The report expects activity in the residential sector to slow further in the first half of the year as nervous investor sentiment coupled with lower rental rates will encourage residents to lease rather than buy. As investors continue to adopt the "wait and see" approach, landlords are also becoming more flexible with payment terms, accepting cheques on a quarterly or even monthly basis. The government is taking various measures to try and alleviate the effect of the global financial crisis such as the rental cap has been replaced by a rent freeze. Rents can only be increased where they are significantly below the average as set out in Real Estate Regulatory Agency's recently launched index. According to JLL, the residential market is currently undergoing a price correction and rental yields have fallen from around nine per cent to six per cent over the past six months. Since the third quarter of 2008, asking prices for both villas and apartments have seen an average decrease of 10 per cent to 20 per cent, but prices of villas have declined by less than those of apartments due to their limited supply. "Given the absence of speculators and the inability of end users to raise finance, it is not surprising that transactional prices have declined even further over the past six months, with transaction prices typically 30 per cent to 50 per cent below asking prices." Rental rates registered an average increase of around 20 per cent for both villas and apartments in the third quarter, but decreased by four per cent to eight per cent in the fourth quarter. "We estimate that market-wide physical occupancy currently averages around 70 per cent for residential units that have been completed and handed over, although this figure is significantly lower in some projects."According to JLL, approximately 32,000 new residential units were completed in 2008, bringing the total residential stock across to around 253,000. The majority of completions were in projects such as Discovery Gardens, International City and the Marina Promenade.

The six-month labour ban in Dubai may be revised or scrapped

The six-month labour ban in Dubai may be revised or scrapped altogether, a senior official said. The move comes in the wake of thousands of expatriates losing their jobs in Dubai due to tough economic conditions.Abdul Razaq Qamber, training head at the Inspection Department at the Ministry of Labour (MoL), said the ministry is set to revise a ministerial decision imposing a six-month ban on expatriate workers, XPRESS reported.Employees working outside the free zones and who resign or lose their jobs are automatically slapped a six month ban, preventing them from moving from one company to another.Qambar was speaking during a discussion on workers’ wages held on Sunday at the Ministry of Labour in Dubai.

Six Month Immigration Ban to Continue in Dubai

Ministry of Interior used to put an automatic six-month ban on expatriates if they cancelled their employment / residence visas or left their jobs. The decision to lift the immigration ban that came into effect on 21 st August 2005 has brought some relief to expatriate community. It would enable the people to return to UAE on a visit visa even if they got a labour ban. The main advantage of the new decision is that people can still come back and visit their friends and relatives. But expatriates who violated the country’s Immigration and Residence Laws would still face the entry ban.
Article 6 of the Cabinet Decree No. 18 of 2005 annulled Decree No. 30 of 2001 pertaining to the entry ban. The Cabinet also authorized the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to put together necessary regulations to implement the decision on the ban.
Subsequently, iris scanning has also been stopped. Besides, the names of expatriates with cancelled visas will no longer be on the administrative lists nor will their passports be stamped with the ban. The ban to enter the UAE will only be applicable on expatriates who violate laws governing the entry and residence of foreigners. Such violators would face the entry ban administratively for a multitude of reasons and in line with existing laws and regulations.
Domestic help have been excluded ‘temporarily’ from the new decision and their case will undergo further scrutiny by the authorities.
But, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will not issue a new work permit to workers whose visas have been cancelled unless at least six months elapse after the cancellation date of the worker’s labour card. The decision came in Article No. 11 of a Ministerial Order Decision No. 826 issued on 11.9.2005 by the UAE Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.
The six-month waiting period does not apply to government departments or free zones

Lifting Labour Ban In Dubai - is it possible

The Ministry of Labour has amended the labourers' Visa Transfer Law, which, I believe, are in favour of both - the labourers and the labour market. The ministry has ceased the previous condition that obligates the labourer to complete one year continuous service for his/her employer before being permitted to transfer his/her visa to another employer.

According to the new rule, the Ministry of Labour no longer requires such a condition. So, any labourer who has not completed a year's service for his/her employer may transfer to another employer after obtaining a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the employer to transfer the visa to another employer, provided that the newly imposed fees should be settled. Such fees are called "the one year non-completion fees" which is calculated at the rate of Dh500 per month. For instance, if the employee continues a period of two months service only then he/she would be obliged to pay a fee of Dh5,000 for 10 months.

Now any labourer, who completes a period of three years service and who could not obtain an NOC, can resign and can approach the Ministry of Labour and the ministry - as per his demand - will cancel the visa and apply a six-month ban. With the new rules and upon completion of three years' service, this ban can be lifted and the employee can transfer to another employer without the need to obtain such NOC from the previous employer, provided that the newly imposed fees should be settled in addition to the visa transfer fees. Such new fees are called 'ban lifting fees'. Worth saying is that this new law is not applicable in Abu Dhabi but might be in the future. Therefore, the reader as per the new law will not have any problem as long as the company has promised to grant him a n NOC to transfer his visa.

Employee Banned In UAE

If an employee has been deemed an absconder, is the lifetime ban in effect to the whole of UAE or all the GCC countries?

The lifetime ban which may be imposed on the employee, is applied only in UAE, and is not applied in all GCC countries.