Banned expatriates turn investors to stay on

People who face the one-year labour ban have been finding loopholes to stay on in the country by becoming investors who need only an immigration clearance to continue as residents, the Ministry of Labour has said.

In light of a plea from an Arab expatriate labourer to cancel the ban on him, the ministry expressed dissatisfaction at the way some people are misusing the provisions that allow investors to become legal residents without a labour clearance, Arabic language daily Al Bayan reported.

The observation came at the weekly meeting of the Abu Dhabi labour committee that took up the case of the Arab expatriate who wanted to become an investor so that he could evade the ban and stay on with only the immigration clearance.

The labourer was facing a one-year ban since he absconded from his sponsor.

The committee comprising Khalil Khouri, Director of Work Permits and Saleh Al Jabri, Director of Unit Facilities in Abu Dhabi, ruled that the labourer was trying to work his way out of the ban by circumventing the law.

By upholding the ban, the committee decided it would not allow such practices.

On the issue of disputes between companies, the committee said that they were not in the ministry’s domain and the judiciary is the competent authority to address such cases.  The ministry, it clarified, can intervene only in disputes between employers and employees.

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