New Methods used by Visa Agents to dupe Gulf Malayalis- Visa Racket Still Active, 35 Indians duped by Recruitment Agent

keralamonitor.com, March 2, 2002.

UAE Recruiting Agents engage in dubious visa Trade: UAE Official

Recruitment agencies in the UAE adopt dubious means to trade in employment visas, revealed the UAE Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. In an exclusive report, the Khaleej Times reported that issuing licences for recruiting agencies is based on the condition that only UAE nationals can set up such agencies. There are strict conditions like furnishing bank guarantee of Dh100,000 and a fee of Dh10,000 for the annual renewal of recruiting agency licence. It may be noted that issuing visit and job visas for a price and bringing workers to various Gulf countries without proper job is a common practice in the Gulf region. Many recruiting agents with their network in India lure innocent workers and sell visas. Many of the company which obtain visas in this fashion are only existing on paper.

Despite these restrictions, the Ministry come across many cases of recruitment agencies bringing labourers into the country and renting them out to other companies illegally.
The owners of such agencies, after getting the ministry's permission to offer middleman's and recruitment services, obtain licences from municipalities and economic departments of emirates to practise other activities, such as general maintenance and sub-contracting.
"We discovered that the recruitment agencies use the other licences as a cover to bring employees sponsored by other businesses owned by the same owner, then hire them out to other companies which recruit them illegally," the Khaleej Times report quoted Ministry sources They also involve in illegal activity of renting out expatriate workers these agencies also sold visas to workers they brought into the country - a practice that has assumed an alarming proportion. "It has now become a common practice in all the emirates."
"We are seeking cooperation of municipalities and economic departments, urging them to act in coordination with the ministry before issuing trade licences for owners of recruitment agencies," the Khaleej Times report said, quoting official sources.

The only activity recruitment agencies are permitted to practise is to work as a facilitator between a company seeking expatriate employees and the workers. According to the ministerial order 233, a recruitment agency is supposed to take its comission, for the service offered, from a company seeking workers, and not from the workers themselves.

Under the labour regulations, expatriates workers should only work for their sponsors, except in two cases - that of a company licensed for sub-contracting which can, under an attested contract with another company, rent out its workers for a specific project, the Khaleej Times report said. Secondly, a company can, with an exemption granted by the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, allow workers sponsored by it to work for another company on a temporary basis under a contract attested by the ministry.