UAE: police certificate made mandatory for work visa
The countries granted visas on the applications received by the two until October this year. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) stiffened rules for the issuance of work visa to the Pakistanis, after which the Pakistan government attached a new condition of obtaining character certificate from the police for the applicants seeking employment in the Gulf country.
Pakistan Overseas Employment Promoters Association Vice Chairman Adnan Paracha told The Express Tribune that the Pakistan government took the decision on the complaints from the UAE authorities about Pakistanis being involved in begging and other unwanted activities in the UAE.
Now, those wishing to go to the UAE for work will have to obtain a police character certificate," Paracha said. "Character certificate from the police has now been made mandatory with the UAE work visa," he added. "The UAE is our brotherly and friendly country and it is obligatory for us to implement its laws."
According to Paracha, the UAE had already banned visit visas for 24 cities of Pakistan but now the ban was extended to 30 cities, adding that the issuance of work visa had also been stopped for the past one year.
The UAE is the second largest source of the remittances coming to Pakistan, after Saudi Arabia. Paracha requested the Pakistani government to initiate diplomatic efforts on the UAE work visa issue, so that the Pakistani workforce could avail the employment opportunities there.