Staff Report
People who lost their jobs recently don’t need to worry about their UAE residence visas as they can stay till the end of the year to find a new job, confirmed by a top government official on Thursday.
“If people who lost their jobs found a new job then we will support them by changing their residency with the new sponsor, or keeping the residency they have already till the end of 2020,” said Maj Gen Mohammad Al Marri, Director of General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) Dubai.
Al Marri was addressing a remote press conference held by Maj Gen Mohammad Al Marri and Dr Amer Al Sharif, head of COVID-19 Command and Control Center, to discuss Dubai’s 24-hour procedures of the comprehensive sterilisation programme.
The UAE authorities will also help expats to change their sponsorship within the country.
Al Marri explained, “We are working to facilitate changing the residency with new sponsors for resident inside Dubai or when a person changes his job from another emirate to a company or institute inside Dubai.” Al Marri said.
Talking about the people who want to go their home countries, Al Marri said, “We are working closely with concerned authority to facilitate the return of people who want to return to their countries. Dubai Health Authority is conducting tests for people leaving the country at the airports.”
On his part, Dr Al Sharif said that UAE residents are encouraged to approach both public as well as private hospitals in case they feel any of the COVID-19 symptoms. He added that though Rashid Hospital is the main hospital handling COVID-19 cases in Dubai, people with symptoms are encouraged to go to the private sector
Regarding screening in labour comps, he informed, “There is intensive work in labour camps by having mobile teams and special clinics to make a field screening to identify the infected people and quarantine them. The screening is the major reason to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We are working now to expand the tests on people returning to the country or people who were in direct contact with infected people as well as people with chronic diseases.”
