The Search and Follow up Department of the Ministry of Interior revealed yesterday that it had blacklisted 2,442 companies and 1,263 individuals during 2012, banning them from recruiting workers. The ban was for violating Law No 4/2009 that regulates entry, exit, residence and sponsorship of expatriates in the country. The action comes “as a result of inspection drives carried out by the department to nab the offenders of the residential law and take legal measures against them to eliminate the problem of absconding and illegal workers,” official sources said. The blacklisted individuals are banned from bringing workers on their personal sponsorship. The companies in question cannot recruit employees on their sponsorship without abiding by the rules and regulations and clearing their ban. These companies and individuals were employing workers not on their sponsorship or they allowed workers on their sponsorship to work somewhere else in violation of the law. Some of them did not provide residence permit to their employees or renew it on time as prescribed by the law. Some companies also refused to pay the deportation expenses of their sponsored workers without proper justification. The department, official said, intended to intensify inspection campaigns and would take legal action against erring workers as well against those who employed them in violation of the law. It urged citizens and expatriates to stay away strictly from dealing with absconding and runaway workers and from employing them in any way. The department solicited co-operation with the agencies concerned by informing about the violators on the hotline telephone number 44695222 which works round the clock for receiving any queries or complaints related to absconding or runaway workers in three languages - Arabic, English and Urdu. In the framework of promoting human rights and supporting the work relationship between the sponsor and sponsored employee as per the law, the Ministry of Interior communicated with workers through its Human Rights Department for solving their problems. As a result, the Ministry of Interior transferred the sponsorship of 260 expat employees during 2012, out of which 211 was temporary change whereas the sponsorship of the remaining 49 employees, who were victims of abuse by their employers, was changed permanently after studying them and verifying their problems with both parties. Gulf Times

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