June 26, 2008

UAE workforce includes large number of workers from India, conference told

DUBAI

Indians comprise 42.5 per cent of the total labour force in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and most of them are in the blue-collar category, a Gulf Co-operation Council labour management conference reveals.

The figure comes from India’s Consul General to Dubai Venu Rajamony, reports Thaindian News.

A presentation called “India-UAE Labour Relations: Striving for a Partnership and Win-Win Situations” was made at the conference organized by Construction Week magazine.

The consul general said the UAE was the single most important destination for Indian workers going abroad for employment and there was a 117.4 per cent increase in the number of workers going abroad in the last five years.

Of the estimated 1.5 million expatriate Indians in the UAE, a vast majority are engaged as contract labourers in the country’s booming construction industry. Most of these workers are concentrated in Dubai and the five northern emirates of Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khailah and Umm Al Qawain.

In 2007, 312,695 Indian workers went abroad, a rise of 22.7 per cent from the previous year.

“The UAE was followed by the Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia and Bahrain as destinations of choice for Indian workers,” Rajamony said.

DCN News Services

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