DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) recovered the equivalent of more than $600,000 in disbursements by companies that created fake jobs to help them comply with the country’s Emiratization law, which requires private sector companies with at least 50 skilled employees to hire 2% with UAE citizenship by the end of this year.
The majority of the UAE’s minority-citizen population hold public sector jobs, and the Emiratization law, implemented in June 2022, seeks to upskill Emiratis and increase their competitiveness in the private sector.
What happened: The UAE’s Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization (MoHRE) announced in a Wednesday press release that it had reclaimed $600,000 (2.2 million AED) from Emiratis who accepted “fake Emiratization” jobs in the private sector. The funds had been disbursed in the form of salaries and benefits.
The ministry reported that 107 Emiratis had illegally accepted fake jobs from private companies, and as a result became eligible to receive benefits from Nafis, the federal program that provides government-supported salaries, unemployment benefits, child allowance schemes, and pension program benefits along with offering discounts on products and services in the country.
