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National ID card will be issued to all by 2010

ABU DHABI — An Identity Card (ID) would be issued to all nationals by the end of 2008 and to all expatriate residents, including workers, by 2010, according to a top official at the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA).

After his meeting with Minister of Labour Saqr Ghobash Saeed Ghobash in the capital yesterday, the Director-General of EIDA, Darwish Ahmed Al Zarouni, said that EIDA would have access to the workers' data at the MoL in order to help issue the unified IDs to all the labourers, professionals and experts working in the country by 2010.

"The new IDs would replace the other cards such as e-signature card, Labour and Public Relation Officers (PROs) cards," said Al Zarouni.

The IDs would include all personal details of the residents such as name, date of birth, profession and date of issuance of their residency visa and date of arrival in the country.

He told Khaleej Times that the ID card would cost Dh100 for each year of residency. "For the family members, the IDs for the children aged less than 15 years would cost Dh50 for the three-year residency period," Al Zarouni added.

According to the Labour Law, the companies, not the employee, must pay all the charges and fees related to the government procedures and formalities.

"This ID will save the other fees paid for issuance of PROs cards or e-signatures and will save time as well," added Al Zarouni.

About 5,000 EIDA registration centres countrywide are ready to receive applications from the public. So far some 520,000 nationals and expatriates have been issued ID cards.

Labour Minister Saqr Ghobash affirmed his full support to the EIDA to provide all required data and information about the labour market.

According to the MoL's statistics, almost 3.1 million expatriate workers would have this ID cards by 2010.

The Acting General Manager of the MoL, Humaid bin Deemas, said that companies will be offered an incentives package to register their workers as soon as possible. It includes upgrading their category from 'C' to 'B' and from 'B' to 'A'.

"They can also get the e-quota of work permits, by which they can apply online to get additional quota of work permits to bring more workers," said bin Deemas.

There are no fines for not applying for the unified IDs. However, the companies and individuals would not be able to complete any application at government offices without the IDs.

ahmed@khaleejtimes.com