New Employer’s Nod Not Must in Transfer Form
The new sponsor’s official approval in the application form for transferring sponsorship is no longer required, the Ministry of Labour has clarified.However, it must be accompanied with a letter of no objection signed by the old sponsor. This is part of the new mechanism the ministry has started to enforce. According to the old procedure, the official form for sponsorship transfer has a column where the new sponsor’s approval had to be entered. This would not be required anymore, Humaid bin Deemas, Acting Director-General of the ministry, said at the weekly Open Day here on Monday. The move was taken to prevent sponsors from laying down illegal conditions like surrendering the employee’s rights, including the dues, if the new sponsor’s approval is not there. Bin Deemas said this after a worker, Zakaria Ahmed, lodged a complaint with the ministry against his sponsor, claiming that the latter had initially approved transferring his sponsorship to another. Ahmed started the procedures for transferring his visa, but was surprised when the old sponsor demanded him to get the approval of the new sponsor in the official sponsorship transfer form. The worker could not get his sponsorship transferred for six months during which he was jobless and dependant on his brother. “The ministry has encountered a few cases in which sponsors laid down illegal conditions for their employees by asking them to give up their right to financial dues if they want no objection letter for sponsorship transfer,” Bin Deemas said. The practice is unacceptable to the ministry, he said, and urged employees to lodge complaints against such sponsors with the ministry. The ministry would protect the employee in such a case. The ministry, according to Bin Deemas, will issue the employee a new work permit after ascertaining the bad intention of the old sponsor, provided the employee could get his sponsorship transferred within a maximum period of 60 days, to ensure that he is serious. “The ministry’s policy is designed to allow easy movement of workers from one sponsor to another to ensure more flexibility in the labour market, which will benefit competent personnel who have proved their efficiency in the country. The move is also meant to meet the needs of the local labour market,” he said, adding that it would reduce the need to hire workforce from abroad. The ministry’s new policy was enforced in September 2005 on the basis of a cabinet resolution. This policy led to the increase in the number of applications for sponsorship transfer — from 18,742 in 2004 to 29,600 in 2006, and to 48,393 in 2008, he noted. It reached 53,000 in the first 10 months of this year.
source kt
|