• Authorities urge businesses to “achieve demographic diversity while hiring.”
• Once companies achieve 20% diversity, they are free to hire individuals of any nationality.
• Some companies argue that the UAE aims to introduce diversity into the workplace.

Certain companies in the UAE find themselves unable to secure work visas for potential employees from specific South Asian nationalities. When businesses with a predominant workforce from a particular nationality seek new visas for individuals of the same origin, authorities issue a message, urging them to “achieve demographic diversity while hiring.”

Contrary to viral claims suggesting a halt in visa issuance to Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis in the country, visa experts and agents emphatically deny such assertions.

Upon contacting the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE), a business service center in Dubai, I was informed that establishments must diversify nationalities during the hiring process. The guidance emphasizes allocating the “first 20 percent of available quotas in the establishments to different nationalities.” It is crucial to recognize that this protocol is linked to the demographic diversity of the establishments and does not target a specific nationality.

Companies receive instructions to consider hiring employees from a different nationality if they encounter a message urging them to achieve diversity.

MoHRE statements:

The source has talked to MoHRE and according to them “if a company applies for a visa for a particular person and it is rejected based on diversification, then they must recruit someone of a different nationality for the same role to fulfill diversity requirements,” they said. “It does not apply to any particular nationality and is the same for everyone across the board.”

She also stated that once companies achieved 20% diversity, they were free to hire individuals of any nationality.

Dismissing claims on social media that the authorities have stopped issuing visas to Indians, Firosekhan, managing director of Dubai-based Profound Business Service, explained: “I got a visa for an Indian applicant at a company that has a diverse workforce. However, when I tried to get one for an applicant at an establishment with an overwhelming majority of Indian employees, I got the ‘achieve diversity’ message.”

An executive from another business center stated that the UAE aims to introduce diversity into the workplace.

“Many companies in the UAE have a majority of Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis as employees. So if a company already has a large number of employees from these three nationalities, they are not able to apply for new visas for people from the same countries,” said Abdul Gafoor, general manager of Al Mas Businessmen Service.

As of Thursday, this rule did not apply to free zones. “None of the companies operating out of free zones have faced issues with getting work permits issued,” he said. “So far, it looks like something only applicable to mainland companies.”

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