NEWS FROM THE UAE
Excerpts from UAE Dailies
New measures from Sept to eliminate visa scams
DUBAI — 30 Aug:Faced with the influx of unskilled and medically unfit workers from abroad, the UAE has chalked out a full-fledged plan to eliminate the visa racketeers and illegal human resource supply offices in the labour exporting countries, Dr Ali Abdullah Al Ka'abi, Minister of Labour, has disclosed.
In a phone call from Busan, South Korea where he is on an official visit heading a UAE delegation to participate in the International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s 14th Regional Asian Meeting (RAM) that commenced yesterday, Al Ka'abi said
that the government, beginning from September 1, will issue online labour contracts through competent bodies in the exporting countries, and not by the employers as was the case in the past sometimes.
The hired employee, he said, will sign the employment contract in the presence of the representatives of the labour ministry of his country. A copy will be e-mailed to the UAE to be kept on record as an true copy of contractual document with the employee.
This step will eliminate the possibility of more than one labour contract with the same worker, Al Ka'abi noted.
He pointed out that visa racketeers had brought in workers who had to be imparted training in the UAE, though they were supposed to have such experience before being hired.
Al Ka'abi said the plan hammered out by the government had the twin objectives of tackling unscrupulous visa traders in their countries in a bid to nip the evil in the bud and monitoring the export of labourers.
In this context that an agreement was reached with the International Migration Organisation that it's offices in the Asian countries would conduct professional interviews of workers and get them tested medically as well before recruiting them.
He said that in many cases the overseas labour supply offices produce fictitious labour contracts before the workers arrive in the country, and then the local establishment for which the said worker was hired makes a different contract with different details in the name of the same employee.
Al Ka'abi said he will visit India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal this November to discuss with officials mutual cooperation in matters concerning export of labourers.
He will hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the conference with the representatives of labour exporting states.
KHALEEJ TIMES
Rat causes Dh90,000 loss and three-hour traffic jam in Ajman!
AJMAN — 30 Aug: A rat was the cause of a three-hour traffic jam near the Gulfa and Al Ittihad roundabouts on the Khalifa Road in Ajman yesterday.
The rodent entered the main cable that controls the traffic signals, wreaking a havoc. It cost the municipality Dh90,000, according to officials.
Brigadier Ali Saeed Al Matroushi, Head of the Traffic and Accidents Section of the Ajman Traffic and Licensing Department, said that the traffic lights near Gulfa and Al Ittihad roundabouts stopped functioning because the rat had caused damage to the cable. This resulted in a heavy traffic jam along the Khalifa Road.
Motorists waited in their cars for a long time expecting the red light to turn yellow and then green till traffic patrols officers arrived to handle the situation. Motorists were then told to move on despite the red signal. When the emergency section was informed that there was a major traffic snarl in the area, a team was despatched to find the cause. Technicians found the rat inside the main cable. The wires were all burnt.
Brig Al Matroushi said that the department finally decided to block the signals and deployed traffic officers in the two intersections to manage the traffic till the cable was replaced.
Meanwhile, an accident took place yesterday in the Mushairif area, said Brig Al Matroushi. A person was seriously hurt while two others sustained minor injuries in the accident.
A 28-year-old driver who was trying to enter the main road from a bylane hit two other cars coming from the opposite direction. The young man is being treated at the Khalifa Hospital. The drivers of the other cars had minor injuries.
It was simply a case of reckless driving, Brig Al Matroushi said.
KHALEEJ TIMES
Schools undecided about weekend change
Abu Dhabi - 30 Aug: Some private schools in Abu Dhabi have yet to decide whether to observe the new Friday-Saturday weekend, despite it being stipulated as the two official days off by the government.
Those in charge of the schools are waiting and mulling over the idea with several keen to stick to the old weekend of Thursday and Friday.
There are also schools which said they they have not received any clear orders from the Education Ministry of the Private Education Zone about the weekend and are awaiting instruction.
Schools which have unusual opening days, such as the Islamia English School and Twam school, said they will wait for further clarification from the ministry.
There are some schools, which have already told parents that when the new term starts after the summer break they will be operating on Saturdays.
They said they have been told to open for a short while on the first Saturday to welcome the students and then close for the day.
The Abu Dhabi Indian School said since the circular relating to the new weekend was received during the holidays it was unable to communicate it to the students and that it is causing them some problems.
“The official note from the concerned department at the Ministry of Education was received during the holidays; we decided to reopen the school on Saturday September 2 as per the schedule announced earlier,” explained a teacher at the school.
“However, we will give a short welcome to our students and then close.”
EMIRATES TODAY
Who is Dubai’s craziest driver?
Dubai - 30 Aug: Drivers waiting at a Deira traffic light yesterday vented their anger at a fellow motorist who delayed traffic in order to finish his morning breakfast.
The man, who eyewitnesses said, was in his mid-thirties was having milk and cereal in his white Toyota Corolla while waiting for the light to turn green at Al Rigga Street.
“He had a spoon and a bowl,” said an eyewitness who was next to the unknown motorist at the same junction. “He was eating away and I bet he does it every day.” It seems the man was enjoying his breakfast as it took him a while to realise that the light turned green, the eyewitness said.
“People started honking loudly,” he said, explaining that there was space enough to fit six cars in front of the motorist before he put his breakfast aside. “Everyone was pretty angry but I thought it was funny.” Traffic safety specialists said that yesterday’s incident is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Dubai motorists’ dangerous driving habits.
“At least he was eating while the car was not in motion,” said an official at the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).
A former Dubai Police officer remembered teenagers using the time until the light turns green to perform dance moves in the middle of the junction.
“It happened at night... I have seen it happen several times,” he said. “They turn the music on loud and do it very quickly… It is usually teenagers looking for some fun.” Adam Kechil, director of training at the Belhasa Driving Centre, said that a driver who was reading a newspaper while doing at least 100kph on Sheikh Zayed Road six months ago is his number one choice for Dubai’s craziest motorist.
“The man was engrossed in his newspaper,” said Kechil who took a look inside the white four-wheel drive because it was swerving from lane to lane erratically.
Kechil was terrified to see that the driver was not using his hands to navigate the car. “I saw his left foot on the steering wheel and I knew he was not using his hands as they were busy turning the pages of the newspaper.” The RTA official said he has seen people driving around with the sunshade still covering the front screen of their cars.
“This happens now and then,” said the official, explaining that he last spotted this about five months ago on Al Quds Street.
He also remembered a drunk driver who got confused while crossing a traffic junction and stopped facing directly opposite a queue of cars waiting for their turn at the junction.
“I think he was from a country where they drive on the left,” he said. “He looked like he was drunk although it was 11am.” “People came out of their cars trying to convince him to move away…but he was shouting at them,” said the official, adding that a group of between 10 to 20 people gathered around the man’s car. “He was almost physically forced to move away,” he said.
Kechil said that while such incidents are extreme, they reflect the driving culture in the country.
“People have this sense of immortality here,” he said.
EMIRATES TODAY
Dubai Creek is 9.8km longer
30 Aug: Dubai Creek has been extended by 9.8km, and now reaches almost to Sheikh Zayed Road, according to Dubai Properties, which is building the Business Bay project. When it’s finished, the Creek will stretch to 13.1 km, with its widest section measuring 500m. Work on the Creek extension is being carried out in several phases. Phases 1 and 2 span Doha Street and Sheikh Zayed Road, and connect the extension to the Creek’s former head at Ras Al Khor. Phase 3, located between Oud Metha Road and Doha Street, is also nearing completion, the company said.
The work is due to be finished by 2007.
SEVEN DAYS
Landlords flout rent cap as new tenants move in
Dubai: 30 Aug: Costs still seem to be increasing dramatically despite official efforts to curb price rises.
In November last year, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced that annual rent rises in the emirate would be capped at 15 per cent.
The limit was welcomed by many — but is it having the desired effect?
As reported in Gulf News on Tuesday, Dubai Municipality’s rents committee heard more than 2,200 cases in the first eight months this year, most of them complaints from new tenants that rents were over-the-odds or claims that the 15 per cent rule was being ignored.
Gulf News asked Dubai residents if they were suffering the rental blues despite the 15 per cent limit, which has three
months left to run.
Pakistani civil engineer Naeem Mohammad, 31, was recently told that his annual rent would go up from Dh25,000 to Dh35,000 — a 40 per cent rise — so he has been forced to move out.
“I had to leave and find some other place because they were not agreeing to the 15 per cent rise, even though I said I would go to Dubai Municipality. People are just ignoring the rule."
“The landlord said I would have to move my things out because he has another customer who is prepared to pay,” he said.
Lebanese customer services executive Janine Sabbagh has suffered a similar nightmare and she too could be forced out.
After being stuck in Lebanon during the recent war, the 33-year-old returned to find that the rent of the villa was being upped from Dh85,000 to Dh140,000 a year.
Sabbagh thinks the demand could be a ploy by her landlord, who has been careful not put the demand in writing, to make the family move, so he can then increase the rent by more than the 15 per cent cap.
“We’re not able to pay what he is asking for. He thinks he can evict us with a notice period of one month and five days. We are going to the rental committee to press our case,” she said.
Compared to some, Russian marine engineer Yuri Victor, 42, is relatively lucky. His landlord is sticking to the 15 per cent increase limit.
“He said to me it would go up by 25 per cent, but I said no way, so it is only 15 per cent. If it wasn’t for the limit, it would be going up even more,” he said.
Things are just as difficult for those renting commercial property, according to Lebanese trading company managing partner Louis Chemaly, 42, who has seen the rent on his warehouse in Al Quoz rocket from Dh50,000 a year to Dh70,000. That is a 40 per cent rise.
“I told them it was only supposed to be 15 per cent and they said if you don’t want to stay you don’t have to. You cannot plan strategically because who knows what the rent will be in four years’ time,” he said.
Shafeeq Mohammad, 33, from India, also faced with over-the-odds increases.
“It’s gone up 20 to 25 per cent and they are just saying vacate the flat because other people will pay it. It’s unbearable. It’s a big increase for the middle class. They are just ignoring the 15 per cent rule,” he said.
Sanjeev Kumar’s landlord is playing by the rules but the 37-year-old marketing manager said if the rule was not there, the rent would have gone up even more.
Complaint
If you have a complaint regarding your rent please contact the Dubai Rent Committee on 04 221 5555.
GULF NEWS