UAE turns a blind eye to rampant abuse of its visit visa; employer-pays model only on paper
Summary
Date Reported: 20 Sep 2021
Location: United Arab Emirates
Companies
Reliance HR Manpower - RecruiterAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Location unknown , Recruitment agencies , Gender not reported )Issues
Recruitment Fees , Restricted mobility , Freedom of MovementResponse
Response sought: No
Action taken: A director of one of the companies was sentenced to one and a half years imprisonment and fined USD200.
Source type: NGO
Summary
Date Reported: 20 Sep 2021
Location: United Arab Emirates
Companies
Nepal Manpower - RecruiterAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Location unknown , Recruitment agencies , Gender not reported )Issues
Recruitment Fees , Restricted mobility , Freedom of MovementResponse
Response sought: No
Action taken: A director of one of the companies was sentenced to one and a half years imprisonment and fined USD200.
Source type: NGO
Summary
Date Reported: 20 Sep 2021
Location: United Arab Emirates
Other
Not Reported ( Cleaning & maintenance ) - EmployerAffected
Total individuals affected: 1
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( 1 - Nepal , Cleaning & maintenance , Gender not reported )Issues
Intimidation , Recruitment FeesResponse
Response sought: No
Action taken: Not reported.
Source type: NGO
Summary
Date Reported: 20 Sep 2021
Location: United Arab Emirates
Companies
Group-2 Security - Unknown , Hawk Security Services - Unknown , Link Star Manpower - UnknownAffected
Total individuals affected: 15
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( 15 - Nepal , Security companies , Gender not reported )Issues
Intimidation , Right to Food , Recruitment Fees , Failing to renew visas , Precarious/Unsuitable Living Conditions , Restricted mobility , Withholding Passports , Personal Health , Wage Theft , Freedom of MovementResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Resource Centre; Migrant-Rights.org
Story containing response: (Find out more)
Action taken: The counsel director of Link Star Manpower admitted that the company had sent "some" youths abroad on tourist visas. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Link Star, Hawk Security and Group-2 Security to respond to the article. Group-2 Security provided a response; Link Star and Hawk Security did not.
Source type: NGO
Summary
Date Reported: 20 Sep 2021
Location: United Arab Emirates
Companies
EFS Facilities Services - Unknown , Kalinchok Manpower - UnknownAffected
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( Number unknown - Nepal , Cleaning & maintenance , Gender not reported )Issues
Wage TheftResponse
Response sought: Yes, by Resource Centre
Story containing response: (Find out more)
Action taken: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre contacted both companies to invite them to respond to the article. Kalinchok stated that they had since changed workers salaries to match AED900 per month. EFS provided a response which did not address the key allegation.
Source type: NGO
With Covid-19-related restrictions on formal recruitment, more and more Nepali migrant workers are going to the UAE on visit visas. Though technically legal under UAE law, Nepal’s government bans workers from travelling on visit visas for the purposes of employment. These migrants often end up paying extortionately high fees for non-existent jobs, with none of the legal protections formally recruited workers are entitled to...
the Department of Foreign Employment permitted Kalinchowk Manpower Company to recruit workers to EFS Facilities Services based on EFS’ proposal to pay a minimum of AED900. But the offer letter handed over to migrant workers (and reviewed by MR) indicates their basic monthly salary is just AED600...
Earlier this year, the Department of Foreign Employment caught two agencies – Nepal Manpower Pvt. Ltd. and Reliance HR Manpower – charging migrants exorbitant fees for visit visas to the UAE. One of the directors was sentenced to one year and six months imprisonment, and fined NPR25,000 by the Foreign Employment Tribunal...
“Link Star agents promised us jobs as security guards and said the visa type doesn’t affect us. We trusted them,” said Rajendra. Unemployed and desperate for work, Tejendra and his four friends paid NPR250,000 (USD$2,150) each to the agents...
“We later realised the visit visa doesn’t allow us to work – they (agents) cheated us.”
Harka Mani Rai, counsel director of Link Star Manpower, admitted that his company had sent ‘some’ youth for foreign employment on tourist visas...
Under immense pressure from ‘Sultan’ and Link Star, the five youths worked for a week at Hawk Security Services in Sonapur, according to Suraj. When a month later, the manager discovered they were working under fake ID cards, they were kicked out. Suraj says they also worked at Group-2 Securities in Deira for a few days, but were kicked out again when their two-month visit visa expired in May. None of them received payment for the days they worked.