Manama: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) warned it would review labour relations with countries refusing to repatriate citizens who wish to return home.
The move comes after a number of countries didn’t respond to requests by their citizens to return home following the coronavirus developments.
According to Emirate News Agency, WAM, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation was considering to impose strict future restrictions on the recruitment of workers from these countries including quota system on work visas. The Ministry is also considering to suspend the memoranda of understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Labour and concerned authorities of those countries.
Many expatriates, including thousands of Indians, are remain stranded in the UAE without jobs or means of support. Most of these people lost their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis. There are also plenty of expats under visit visa. Many are on long leaves due to the economic slowdown. Most of these people want to go home as they can’t stay without job.
The expatriates, including Indians, are constantly demanding the repatriation in wake of novel coronavirus. Many private sector firms have given long leave to their expat staff to go back to home till the situation get back to normal. The UAE has given humanitarian consideration to this as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The government has allowed the private sector to reduce salaries or cut or terminate staff on mutual understanding in the backdrop of Covid-19. And employees will be asked to submit their annual leave dates or agree with their employers on unpaid leave. This initiative was aimed to enable residents who work in the private sector to return to their home countries.
Following this, the UAE has offered to fly stranded Indians and citizens of other countries, who wish to be repatriated. In this regard, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MOFAIC) had sent the “note verbale” to all the embassies in the UAE, including the Indian mission and the Ministry of External Affairs in India.
Also, notified the missions that those who will fly back home will be the ones who test negative. Expats who test positive will remain in the UAE for treatment. But Indian government seem to have all the excuses to refrain from flying them home, despite the repeated appeals of their citizens.
The UAE has also given special permission to flay Emirates and Etihad Airlines for repatriating the stranded expats. However, many countries, including India and Pakistan, did not respond favorably.
Three days ago, in an interview to a gulf daily, the UAE’s Ambassador to India, Dr Ahmed Al Banna has offered to repatriate stranded Indians and citizens of other countries, who wish to be repatriated. He said the UAE has offered to test those who want to be evacuated and those who test positive for COVID-19 will remain in the UAE.
“We are offering our system and making sure that they are good (to fly) by doing all the tests and transport them according to the request of their own government,” Al Banna was quoted as saying by the daily.
But Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Mr. Pawan Kumar has said that it would not be possible to repatriate stranded Indians at this stage as India is under a complete lockdown.
According to reports, this is what prompted the UAE to take stringent action. The UAE called on the partner countries to fulfill their responsibilities towards their nationals working in the UAE who wish to return to their home countries.
According to reports, tens of thousands of Indian expats are stranded in the UAE -some lost their jobs because of the pandemic; many others came as tourists or visitors.
There are about 34 lakh Indians in the UAE. According to the 2019 report from Centre for Development Studies, there are 8,30,224 Keralites living in the UAE.
The UAE's decision came as an unexpected blow to countries including India. Though the statement doesn’t name any country, it will definitely force India to take some action.
