Praise for May Day worker festivities – My Letters – THE NATIONAL

Posted on May 6, 2010 Updated on June 6, 2015

My Letters – THE NATIONAL – Praise for May Day worker festivities

Labourers in dash for cash on Yas Island
Suryatapa Bhattacharya

Last Updated: May 02. 2010 1:12AM UAE / May 1. 2010 9:12PM GMT
Workers at the start of the 4 kilometre run in celebration of Labor Day and organised by the Ministry of Labor at the Yas Marina track in Abu Dhabi. Paulo Vecina / The National
ABU DHABI // The track at the Yas Marina Circuit came alive yesterday, not with the screeching tyres of racing cars but with the cheers of thousands of workers.

As an estimated 1,500 men, most of them from construction firms, prepared to run a four-kilometre race, their supporters cheered from the stands, shouting the names of the companies that the workers were representing.

The winners

Ifran Ahmed, 23, Pakistan, steel fixer with ACC.

Omar Mohammed Saad, 25, Egypt, mason with Nurol.

Issam Adnan Hamad, 27, Lebanese-Canadian, procurement department of Algeco.
To commemorate International Workers Day, the Ministry of Labour organised a “marathon” for workers from more than 30 companies.

This is the second year of the event. Last year, the workers ran along the Corniche.

Humaid bin Deemas, acting director-general of the Ministry of Labour, arrived to watch the race and stood by the track to see the runners complete the circuit.

“There is a message today for the community, firms and society,” he said.

“It is to respect the workers, protect them, protect their rights that will enhance the relationship between the workers and the owners of the companies.”

Before the start of the 5.30pm race, workers lined up, and while some chatted and looked for familiar faces, others did stretching exercises.

Dressed in blue caps and white T-shirts that said, “International Labour Day: Our workers are our partners in development”, a number of the runners helped themselves to water bottles stacked at the starting line on the hot but cloudy and windy afternoon.

Asim Ghafoor, 23, a driver from Pakistan with the Al Jaber company, heard about the race from his friend, Kulchander Singh, who works as a clerk.

Mr Singh said that workers from their company believed Mr Ghafoor was the favourite to win the race.

“After two hours of eating dinner he would run for two hours,” Mr Singh said of Mr Ghafoor, who was an athletics standout at his school in Rawalpindi.

Meanwhile, workers from Al Habtoor Group said they had conducted eliminations over the past month to ensure that only the fittest runners were sent to the competition.

Larry Caracas, 42, a shift manager from the Philippines, said 100 runners came from the company’s engineering division alone.

“We did endurance and strength training for two months,” he said. “I am confident. The training was enough.”

The prize money for the winners was increased this year. The winner was awarded Dh7,000 (US$1,360) followed by Dh6,000 for second place, Dh5,000 for third, Dh4,000 for fourth, Dh3,000 for fifth and Dh1,000 each for sixth through 10th place.

Omar Mohammed Saad, a 25-year-old Egyptian, finished second and said he would spend his prize money on jewellery for his fiancé in Egypt ahead of their wedding.

Farooq Ali, 23, a Bangladeshi who works for the Arabian Construction Company (ACC), was last year’s winner. Soon after, he was promoted to the position of security guard.

Yesterday, he placed seventh and said he was disappointed with his performance. “I was just thinking about it too much,” he said.

But the largest group of cheerleaders in the stands – from ACC – were not disappointed. They whistled and shouted as the top runner of the day was one of their co-workers, Ifran Ahmed, 23, from Pakistan.

He won by about five metres, and fell to the track after crossing the finish line. He was both tired and exhilarated.

Mr Ahmed, who works as a steel fixer for ACC, finished sixth last year. To improve his endurance, he trained for a month by running 16km back and forth between the labour camp and his worksite near the Mena port area in the capital.

He said he would send home his winnings. “One does not run for money,” he said. “One runs to earn respect.”

To read this news in original, please visit THE NATIONAL online.

Tourists with ‘low’ jobs turned away at border – My OPinion – The National – Dt. 03.05.2010

Posted on May 3, 2010

Tourists with ‘low’ jobs turned away at border
Essam al Ghalib

Last Updated: May 02. 2010 1:21PM UAE / May 2. 2010 9:21AM GMT
Kathryn Holbrook, a teacher, was told she could cross into Oman without applying for a visa but Colin Davids, a barman in a hotel nightclub, was refused access. Pawan Singh / The National
AL AIN // Residents are being turned away from border crossings between the UAE and Oman because of the type of job they have.

Officials at crossings are enforcing a long-standing agreement between the countries that only expatriates who have what are considered professional occupations can pass into Oman from the UAE without having to apply for a visa.

According to one Omani immigration officer, teachers, doctors, lawyers anyone who has a professional occupation are free to travel into Oman. However, those who do other jobs, such as in the service industry, construction or sales, would not be allowed

The rule, which is to be implemented at all checkpoints, was previously in effect, but border officials only began enforcing it this year, said Captain Ahmad al Shamsi, an Emirati official at the Hilli checkpoint, which links Al Ain with Buraimi and is for non-GCC citizens.

One resident, Colin Davids, was turned away from the checkpoint when he attempted to cross into Buraimi for a camping trip with friends. An immigration agent refused to let him out of the UAE and into Oman.

“He wouldn’t tell me why, but referred me to the visa officer in charge, instead,” said Mr Davids, 27, who had made the crossing numerous times before. “I went inside to ask why and was shocked when he told me I had what he called a ‘low job’.”

Mr Davids works at the Al Ain Rotana hotel as a barman at Moodz nightclub. The job description on his visa says he is a waiter.

“The immigration officer told me that there was a list of occupations that were not free to travel and that mine was too low down to allow me across the border into Oman,” Mr Davids said.

An official in the consular section of the UAE Embassy in Muscat confirmed the agreement between Oman and the Emirates.

“People with certain occupations cannot leave the UAE and people with certain occupations cannot enter Oman,” she said. “There is an agreement between the two countries that is being adhered to.”

People with affected occupations who want to visit Oman need to apply for a visa at the Omani Embassy in Abu Dhabi, she said.

Khaled Hardan, an official at the Omani embassy in Abu Dhabi, confirmed that a prospective visitor’s occupation is a factor considered when issuing a visa, adding that regulations had become more stringent throughout the GCC recently, and not just in Oman.

As for Mr Davids and others like him, Mr Hardan said: “If he would like a visitor’s visa, he can come to the Omani embassy in Abu Dhabi and apply for one.”

An Omani immigration officer, who asked not to be named, said in the past many people would leave the UAE and enter Oman from Hilli. They would then stay and work illegally in Buraimi.

“In the case of the Hilli border crossing into Buraimi, there isn’t an official Omani checkpoint for 40km down the road to Muscat,” he said. “For people with professional jobs, it would be harder for them to find work illegally in Buraimi, whereas a carpenter can find odd jobs to do here and there.”

Kathryn Holbrook, a 29-year-old geography teacher at Al Ain English School, who was with Mr Davids when he tried to cross, was stunned to learn that he could not.

“My occupation is listed as a teacher so I was told I could cross into Oman, but not Colin,” she said. “I complained to people at the border who told me there was a new list that came out this year.”

Days after Mr Davids’s experience, Arianne Galez, 31, from the Philippines, stood in front of a visa officer in disbelief. After making regular trips to visit her family, who were expecting her, she was suddenly being denied.

The officer explained to Ms Galez that certain occupations, including hers – a receptionist at a dental clinic – were not considered professional.

“My cousin and sister work in Sohar,” Ms Galez said. “I don’t know when I am going to see them again.”

My Comments as follows:

Interesting news. This rule was there for some time now. But, may be they started applying it strictly from now on. The experience of the involved parties highlighted brings out an equally interesting question. Are they married couples? If not, is it an example of restrictive measures by authorities towards illegal cohabiting and fun trips across the boarder both ways during week-end. Point to ponder.

Ramesh Menon, Abu Dhabi

To read this in original, please visit THE NATIONAL online.

At last, the great escape – My Opinion

Posted on April 24, 2010

My Opinion : At last, the great escape

The National staff

Last Updated: April 22. 2010 12:48PM UAE / April 22. 2010 8:48AM GMT
Jaqueline Wood, left, and Tara Roe Gammon embrace after returning to Heathrow from Costa Rica via Madrid yesterday. Paul Hackett / Reuters
As European skies once again filled with planes, the UAE’s carriers flew thousands of people home yesterday from their extended, unexpected stays in the country.

Both Etihad Airways and Emirates Airline put on extra flights to clear the backlog of some 12,000 stranded passengers.

Etihad said that by evening it had flown 31 flights to and from Europe, and was on schedule to clear its backlog of 2,500 passengers stranded in the UAE by today.

Richard Hill, Etihad’s chief operating officer, said it was on course to resume its normal operations by the end of today.

Emirates, meanwhile, said it had flown 9,000 passengers back to Europe, leaving just 350 to clear. Both airlines said they were not accepting new bookings to Europe.

Other carriers were also beginning to clear their backlog of passengers. “We are investigating all possibilities to accommodate as many passengers as possible,” said Lauren Cooper, a representative for British Airways.

Meanwhile, the airline industry was counting the cost of the six-day, near-total stoppage of air traffic in Europe, the result of a massive cloud of ash spewed out by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.

“Lost revenues now total more than $1.7 billion for airlines alone,” said Giovanni Bisignani, the director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association.

“At the worst, the crisis impacted 29 per cent of global aviation and affected 1.2 million passengers a day. The scale of the crisis eclipsed 9/11, when US airspace was closed for three days.”

For Etihad alone, Mr Hill said the expense of accommodating and feeding stranded passengers, as well as all the lost revenue, had cost the airline in excess of US$5 million (Dh18m) a day.

After initial scenes of chaos in Dubai and airports across Europe, the mood turned to jubilation as stranded passengers were reunited with their friends and families.

My comments as follows:

The title of this article reflects as if UAE is the most unfriendly country ever to be with and the respective hosts of the guests who had to experience such an unexpected ordeal belong to the same breed. I am sure, every effort would have been made by the airlines, authorities and the respective contact parties to make sure this unexpected stay was made comfortable to the maximum possible by all parties involved.

Ramesh Menon
Abu Dhabi
To read it in original, please visit THE NATIONAL online