UAE slams Philippine move to contact firms directly

In response to a question from Federal National Council member Hamad Al Rahoomi, at the 13^th session of the second ordinary meeting of the 15^th legislative chapter held in the Capital on Tuesday, Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the embassy had made direct contact with the companies to try to induce them to use a standard form contract which guaranteed maid wages would be above a minimum level.

However, Shaikh Abdullah said that contravened Geneva Convention provisions which restricted the work of diplomatic missions to coordinate and work with the foreign ministry, noting that any work outside this frame prompted the foreign ministry to summon the ambassador or the charge d’affaires to inform them about that work.

“Any illegal communication made by the embassies under any pretext or excuse, and that includes any offence on the sovereignty of the country, is regarded as a violation,” he said, noting there were practices in other states conducted by embassies by collecting information and data, which could be general and that was permissible, but any work which overstepped the sovereignty of the country was considered to be as violation — which was unacceptable by the Foreign Ministry.

Any direct contact to companies in the Philippines was acceptable, but here in the UAE all such contact should be made through the Foreign Ministry, he said.

Shaikh Abdullah said the Foreign Ministry was the main gate for all contracts of the embassies with any sector in the country, and any institution that had a complaint should report it to the ministry. The ministry circulated this principle to the diplomatic missions in the UAE, and notified the local and federal government departments, he said.

“The foreign ministry is keen on underscoring this principle, and that situation has improved lately, but we...require the cooperation of the different organisations in the country,” he said.

Shaikh Abdullah urged all government institutions and the private sector to inform the Foreign Ministry of any infringement, as it continued to follow up the issue and would hold any embassy or diplomat who infringed the safety of the country to account.

On the legitimacy and the procedures of the labour contracts, Shaikh Abdullah said the issue was not the core work of the Foreign Ministry, as it fell within the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry.

He said there existed a contract between a person and the company that bought them to the country, “and I cannot defend the already signed contracts”.

“The Philippines is not the only country from where workers are brought in and hired,” he said, noting that, the duty of any country through its diplomatic mission was to protect the interests of its citizens.

FNC member Marawan bin Ghalita, posed another question to Shaikh Abdullah about where efforts in getting UAE nationals visa exemption reciprocity from the countries whose citizens the UAE grants entry without prior visa.

Shaikh Abdullah said that the Cabinet had exempted citizens of 33 countries in 2001 from the UAE entry visa in order to promote the tourism sector, with the UAE last year said to be the largest travel hub in the Arab world.

He said about 55 countries currently exempted UAE citizens from the pre-obtained entry visa, which was below aspirations, but he said the government had made contact with the remaining countries whose citizens had UAE exemptions, and there were “positive indicators” in changing the status.

During the “fruitful visit” paid by the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to Britain, this subject was raised and put on the table to which the British government pledged it would lift the petition this year.

“Earlier, the ministry contacted EU countries linked to the Schengen visa, and they initially approved our request and they passed a recommendation on to the commission concerned with the internal affairs of the EU, and we have been waiting a recommendation to be put forward to the EU parliament,” he said.

Shaikh Abdullah said he was hopeful there would be “real change” in the Schengen, UK and Japanese visa regimes over the next year.

“In a hopeful development with Japan, citizens of both countries who are holding special and diplomatic passports would be exempt from the entry visa to those countries, and a delegation from the UAE will travel to Japan to reply to some technical inquiries.”