Why unskilled people in the UAE are always on the move-out. By David Olumati

There are very comfortable experts in the UAE. The comfortable are the top professionals at various fields, either in the technology, health or other industries. The highly skilled individuals get a good pay range and some with accommodation, medical insurance and education for their children. Some companies go as far as providing a car and cover for further studies for their staffs.

In every country, while there are very high skilled experts, there are also people who are less skilled or even unskilled. This article will review the experiences of the unskilled workers against the skilled workers in the UAE.

Working in the UAE.

There is always an advert for availability of jobs in the UAE, ranging from skilled down to the unskilled. Some companies usually use the services of recruitment agencies while some employ directly through their HR team.





Research has proven that most companies in the UAE do not keep to the agreements on the employment contracts especially for the unskilled workers in the cleaning, or construction industry. 

One of the complaints from a construction worker who wants to stay anonymous, a Pakistani, 34 years old Man, who has worked in this construction company for 4 years as of August 2021. He confirmed to us that he was told his duty time was 8 hours but he has been working 11 to 12 hours daily with an hour break. 

We met some guys, working in a restaurant somewhere in Hamriya, they also confirmed to us that they work 12 hours, sometimes more when they have to clean or receive new products. These guys at this restaurant have no day-offs in a week, they have to work every day. 

From my own experience, when I worked with a tourism company in Dubai, I worked 11 hours daily with a day to rest (Fridays). 

Working in the UAE is sometimes draining, especially when the employers make life so difficult for their workers. Some workers get to stay 10 to 15 guys in a small room with one toilet and washroom for all of them, some accommodations we have visited has no cooling system, and these guys have to suffer the heat all night long after the heat at work. 

The media might present a lot of opportunities and lifestyles of the highly skilled people, but the unskilled, who get the dirty jobs done, the people who prepare the foods that we eat daily, who build these luxurious apartments, who wash our luxury cars, who clean the health care premises, who protect the foods that we buy in malls and groceries are left without care, without support, without job security, without a voice.





This has been a sad situation and the authorities have ignored this for so long. 99 percent of unskilled workers in the UAE have started a visa process to the western world or are nurturing that idea. 

Someone needs to remind the authorities that a successful society is not made up of only the high skilled People. The unskilled people in society need to be recognized. 

Canada as a country will issue a Permanent Residence visa (PR) to a medical doctor, with a citizenship status in three years, same goes to a cleaner who gets a PR, the same cleaner gets a citizenship status after three years in Canada. 

It is very unfortunate that the UAE only comes up with schemes for the highly skilled in either the healthcare industry, IT, or people with lots of money to buy the properties built by these young construction workers who in turn get no recognition by the authorities. 

You see beautiful streets in Dubai, clean luxury cars on the roads, sit in clean luxurious trains and buses, they are all maintained by a team of unskilled workers, who get to clean up these high rise buildings on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. These cars get cleaned by car cleaning companies through unskilled cleaners, the streets are cleaned each day in this hot weather by these unskilled workers who sometimes don’t even get paid by their employers and have no voice to speak for them.  

Recruitment in UAE

This is another area that the government needs to look into. One of the easiest things to do in Dubai is to set up a business for whatever reason. Even to steal from people. There are countless numbers of offices in Dubai that claim to be a recruitment agency, with great websites, state of the arts office, already existing secretaries as most sheared offices have one secretary at the reception. 

With an office in Dubai, it becomes very easy for job seekers to attend interviews, pay consultancy fees which can range from 500 to 5000 AED depending on the job and benefits.

Most of these companies do not exist. They open up these offices, take lots of money from agents and run away to another location or even move out of the country. 

It is only by the grace of God that one can land a job through a recruitment agency in UAE. They are 99.9% fake, every one of them. And once you’ve paid any amount to these companies if you’re not the kind that engages in a physical fight, you just have to forget about whatever you have spent because it will take ages to ever get it back, that’s if you can find that person ever again. 

The government has issued warnings to individuals not to pay anyone for any job since they noticed a lot of scammers out there. Apply for jobs directly on the company’s website, and you would surely get contacted if there are openings. 

Why western world

NO, why not the western world a Medical Doctor (Gynecologist) who has worked in the UAE for 12 years asked me when I asked her why she plans to move to the USA

The feeling is worse when you speak to unskilled workers, some respond with tears in their eyes. When you get to speak with unskilled workers in the USA, they have no plans or intentions of leaving the USA or Canada, or even Australia. Unskilled workers in these countries are protected, they are loved and cared for, they are on a road to becoming citizens of each of those countries where they serve as cleaners or whatsoever jobs they engage in.  

It is a very beautiful life in the UAE, but only for highly skilled people. If you have no skills, it’s almost a leaving hell for you in the UAE. 




Don’t lie about having skills just to move to the UAE. A few days ago, I told a very close friend of mine clearly that moving to UAE without a good and reasonable skill will bring about regrets in the nearest future. At some points, you will think you’ve made a great mistake moving out of your current base.

If you have no skills, stay back, acquire some good skills, become relevant at a particular area and be able to defend that skill very well to be able to leave a moderate life in the UAE. Else it’s almost a suicide mission and there would be nobody speaking for you, if you fall in that category for now. 

Summary

 The UAE is a great place, the Government of the UAE has proven oftentimes to be very innovative and has shown great chances of making life better for experts who work in their country. 

I strongly believe that they can do more for the unskilled workers in the UAE. They are suffering and have no one fighting for them. They join in the construction of luxury apartments but stay at the worse places in the countryside. 

If a cleaner gets into any crime he is arrested and jailed, the same goes for the medical doctors. They also get jailed, but it happens only at the crime scene. Why are they only treated alike when they commit crimes, why aren’t they treated with the same privileges as residents in the country? 

These unskilled workers need to be heard, to be cared for, and need to have a feeling of acceptance in the country they wish to call home. 

Recommendations

1.     The UAE Government needs to have a new work permit system. A federal work permit. It should be a document that enables someone to work in the UAE. You should not be tied to a particular employer because your work permit came from him. If you have a permit to work in the UAE document, it will enable you to cancel from any job, and proceed to work in another company without any obligations.

2.     The UAE Government should remember that these unskilled people exist here. There should be a show of love and acceptance towards them especially regarding issuing of the Golden visa and other schemes as they do for the highly skilled people.

3.     The UAE should make workers have a sense of job security. The idea of placing ones’ future in the arms of an employer is not letting people develop individual skills as the employers gets to make even personal decisions for employees.

Give the unskilled people a voice, let them have a reason to be proud of their jobs.   

David Olumati N
Devops Engineer/System analyst. 
Author with interest in developing a high cyber security standard. 
Seasoned blogger. 

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