Indian and Pakistani workers in UAE

The United Arab Emirates has decided to freeze the operations that bring in unskilled labor from India and Pakistan, due to the increase in the number of unemployed in the UAE from the two countries.

The UAE Gulf News daily quoted the UAE Labor Ministry's secretary, Muhammad Issa al-Sweidi, as saying on Monday that the labor surplus from the two countries is much higher in comparison with other nationalities. He stressed the importance of organizing the labor market to ensure work opportunities for the unemployed instead of appointing new workers.

The UAE official stated that this measure does not include specialized and skilled workers.

The UAE is a major market to foreign labor, among which Indians and Pakistanis constitute two thirds of its current population, estimated at 2.7 million.