Visa Transfer Trouble
100 Bangladeshi workers in UAE to lose jobs
One hundred Bangladeshi workers are to lose their jobs as the United Arab Emirates authorities have rejected their new employer’s plea to transfer their visas and let them work on their existing visas.
The migrant workers from Dubai said they earlier worked at Hastie International, an electrical company, but as the company closed down over a month ago, about 700 workers from different countries became jobless.
Over 300 of them were Bangladeshis, of which, 200
returned home. But the rest of the workers found jobs at another company — AL Futtaim Carillion LLC.
Al Futtaim, a construction company, signed job agreements with the 100 Bangladeshis plus 275 Indians and other nationals. The company applied for visa transfers for the workers accordingly.
The UAE immigration authorities in Dubai accepted all the transfers, except those of the Bangladeshis, said Mainuddin, a diploma engineer and one of the workers.
“Al Futtaim Carillion said all of us, the Bangladeshis, have to go home from September 16 onwards,” he told The Daily Star by phone on Monday.
The authorities told the company they could not issue the visa transfers to the Bangladeshis as there was a “visa ban”.
“What mistakes have we made? The employer is offering jobs, but the government is rejecting our applications…things were not like this before…please tell our authorities to address the problem,” said Mainuddin, who comes from Narsingdi.
This plight of the workers happened three weeks after the UAE started becoming stricter about work visas for Bangladeshis as part of a plan to toughen the recruitment process.
Contacted, Nazmul Quaunine, Bangladesh ambassador to the UAE, said the Gulf nation has cracked down on issuing new visas and visa transfers.
“They [UAE] are scrutinising the employers before visa transfers. In case of a company with bad records, the authorities are not letting the transfers go through,” he added.
Asked why the authorities then allowed transfers for other nationals, he said there could have been some error on the UAE’s end.
“Al Futtaim is a very renowned company. In this regard, if the company approaches the Bangladesh authorities in Dubai, we can help,” he added.
-With The Daily Star input
