By IANS
Dubai : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government’s amnesty offer may have been a boon to many expat workers, including Indians in the country, but it is bad news for several businesses. Among the hardest hit are many cafeterias, small hotels and restaurants who till recently depended on the large pool of illegal foreign workers.
Many restaurants and roadside eating joints in the country have closed down as their employees have left work and returned to their respective countries after taking advantage of the amnesty, Khaleej Times reported.
In June, the UAE cabinet had announced a three-month grace period for foreigners present illegally in the country to regularise their status according to the law or leave the country without penalty. The amnesty scheme ended early this month.
“We run a chain of four restaurants in Sharjah, of which we have already closed down one. Most of our employees, who were illegals, have gone back home to their countries taking advantage of the amnesty.
“We don’t have enough people left to serve our customers and for our delivery service. This has caused a drop in customers. In such a situation, it’s impossible to run a business,” said Moidin Hazi, owner of the Taufeeq restaurant at Rolla in Sharjah.
“We could be closing down our entire chain soon. The situation of the other restaurants here is almost the same,” he added.
The Sharjah municipality, however, said it “didn’t have a clue”.
“We don’t have a clue about this. But then the businessmen should know that hiring illegal immigrants is an offence. If they want to run a business they should be hiring legal workers who have the visas, passports and other necessary documents,” an official said.
About 1.4 million expatriate Indians live in the UAE, many of them contract workers.