Illegal recruiters in UAE will be blacklisted: Pakistan ministry

Strict action will be taken against fake agents and agencies in Pakistan that are exploiting labour and recruiting for the UAE, the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and HRD has said.
The ministry was responding to a story published by Khaleej Times on May 29 regarding the cancellation of the operational license of a Peshawar based overseas recruitment agent after reports surfaced of illegal hiring of security guards in Dubai, some of whom were briefly deputed to work in Dubai's malls. 
Pakistan-based agency loses licence over illegal UAE hiring
The ministry told KT that a list was being readied and the number of the agents and agencies blacklisted would soon be shared.
After the issue of the duped security guards was brought to the notice of Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari, he issued a notice stating that the hiring was done without the permission of the Directorate General Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment in Pakistan.
A website titled www.gulfvisajobs.com was also blocked by Pakistan's regulatory authority. The notice also mentioned that the company had failed to provide security guards with the promised jobs, housing and salaries.
Around 25 young Pakistanis were promised lucrative jobs as security guards in Dubai by unregistered agents in Pakistan in what is a believed to be a web of lies, fake promises and a money extortion racket that starts in Pakistan and ends in Dubai.
Each of the young men were asked to pay Rs400,000 (Dh9,600) in advance to cover the visa costs and air tickets in return for a job as security guards. However, the promises were as fake as the jobs.
All of the men spent nearly nine months without salaries, food and water, had to sleep in the open often and were at times recruited to work long and odd hours at different places including at malls.
After they approached the consulate, the men were issued return tickets. The consulate also contacted the agents who returned the passports and also helped get their visas cancelled along with community help.
"We have convinced six of them to return. Others are still hopeful that the agents will get them the promised jobs," said Ahmed Amjad Ali, Pakistan's Consul General to Dubai.
"We have tried to explain to them and warned them about working in the UAE illegally but they've spent so much money and are awaiting some miracle."
"Some of them are here on visit visas and a few of them had been given employment visas," he said, adding that many of them came through official channels with fake papers.
"Pakistan's immigration policy and rules need to be tightened so that similar cases do not happen in the future," said Ahmed.
"This kind of recruitment has to be stopped from Pakistan," he stressed. "The most we can do from here is provide them with legal documents and return tickets," he added.
Many of those looking for jobs in the Gulf raise the money either by selling off jewellery, livestock, pieces of land or take a loan hoping to pay off the debts once they start receiving the Dh3,500 promised as salary to them in Dubai.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com
 

• Pakistan

Asma Ali Zain

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com