Leaving on a jetplane if they can...

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi offered a tiny olive branch in his tv appearance last night which he then snatched away. He raised the spector of Libya being carved up by unspecified separatists, while threatening the West with disruption of oil supplies (Libya supplies 79% of the EU's oil) then threatening the Libyans with 'the West is coming to get you'. He seems to attempting to rattle all the cages at the same time.

Western firms are mobilising to get their staff out of Libya and two helicopter loads of French oil workers have already arrived in Malta.  As an exit visa is required for a foreigner to leave Libya this is, naturally, proving problematic and it seems many people will attempt to leave without the government stamp in their passport.  Benghazi airport is shut but Tripoli is currently still open.

The latest rumours are:


a) Gadaffi has left Libya and is heading to Venezuela; or

b) Gaddafi's left Tripoli and is heading to the centre of the country to direct operations when the army moves in...time will tell.

Meanwhile the Libyan tv channel which we can pick up here in Dubai, continues to show pro-Gaddaffi rallies with a soundtrack of 'patriotic' songs.

Emiratis get tetchy with expats in the UAE

In stories like that below, the word 'expat' seems, in so many people's minds, to mean Western.  I wish these articles would begin by pointing out that  81% of the population here are from the sub-continent, the Phillipines and other Arab nations.  Western expats make up only 3% of the population.  Emiratis are at 16%.
Source: The Telegraph 29 March 2010
Photo: Iconotec Stock Photography
==========================
The United Arab Emirates, and Dubai in particular, has undergone breakneck development in recent decades, attracting foreign money and foreign visitors - in their billions and millions respectively. But such progress also has its price.
"We have become a minority. Our traditions are threatened and Arabic is no longer a first language," says Ibtisam al-Ketbi, a sociology professor at the United Arab Emirates University.
"We are surrounded by foreigners, and live in constant fear for our children because of the spread of drugs and a rise in crime rates," she adds, echoing a sentiment felt by many "nationals," as they are commonly called.
The recent case of a British couple sentenced to a month in prison after an Emirati mother complained that they were kissing in a Dubai restaurant highlights a growing unease among a traditionally conservative local population.
The two 20-somethings were also accused of consuming alcohol, a fact they acknowledged, but said in their defence that they had only kissed on the cheek.
Now they have had their passports confiscated and have to wait as their case makes its way through the appeals procedure. They should find out in April whether their conviction has been upheld or they are free to leave.
It is understandable that many people in the UAE feel they are being swamped.
Before the 1968 oil boom, nationals made up some 62 per cent of the federation's population but now account for just 16.5 per cent of an estimated population of six million, officials say.
In Dubai, the disparities are even greater. Emiratis make up only around five per cent of the two million residents, estimates Chris Davidson, author of a book called Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success.
"Many nationals now contend that they feel unwelcome in certain parts of the city and often complain that restaurant and hotel managers discriminate against national dress," writes Davidson.
In Dubai, Emiratis entrench themselves in neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city in order not to have to mingle more than necessary with foreigners, whose customs differ widely from their own.
"We are practically living in reservations, and if this abnormal growth continues at the current rate, in 20 years' time we'll end up like the American Indians," Ketbi says.
"We were undergoing natural development until the property boom came along in the past 10 years, and in the attempt to encourage foreign investment, the city became open to everything, including alcohol and prostitution."
On radio talk shows, Emiratis often complain of seeing scantily clad foreigners in public parks and shopping malls, and express concern about how easy it is to buy alcohol.
Special permits are required for restaurants and clubs to serve alcohol, and individuals need a permit from the government. But alcohol is still available in almost all hotels and in many restaurants.
Foreigners are required to be modestly dressed, but in reality this provision is neither observed nor enforced.
Nightclubs in Dubai can compare to those in major cities around the world, alcohol flows freely at sporting events and restrictions on women's clothing are almost non-existent.
The police do sometimes intervene, however, as they did in the case of a British couple arrested in 2008 accused of having sex on a public beach - a story that made headlines across the globe.
Michelle Palmer, a British expat, and Vince Acors, a tourist, were each given a three-month suspended sentence, fined and ordered to be deported.
The Britons denied having sex in public and public indecency, but admitted to being under the influence of alcohol when they were caught on Dubai's Jumeirah public beach.
Their case drew unwanted attention to what has been a fine balancing act of preserving tradition while also allowing in outside influences that can quickly come into open conflict with an ancient and proud culture.
"Emiratis are starting to lose much of their identity, and the presence of so many expats leads to unacceptable behaviour that does not conform to our traditions," said Abdel Khalek Abdullah, an Emirati writer and academic.
"What arouses UAE concern is the massive influx of foreigners due to very rapid economic growth. If officials do not take bold steps, the social costs of this frantic economic development will be much greater than any economic benefits."
Abdullah thinks that "the government must review its development strategy and reduce the proportion of its ambitious growth," which may have slowed in Dubai today but is still rampant in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.
According to Davidson, the worldwide economic crisis has caused anger over foreigners' customs and behaviour to be more widely expressed.
"The resentment nationals feel about foreigners is becoming more public," he believes. "Two or three years ago, no one really cared."

Dubai losing its professional workforce

This may come as a surprise to those who live outside the area or who still believe the 'bouncing back, everything's fine and the property market is recovering' stories.  But, to quote Basil Fawlty, this article is 'stating the bleeding obvious' to anyone else. 
Source: ArabianBusiness.com 23 February 2010
Photo: I took it on a Nikon D40
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Dubai lost 17 percent of its professional workforce in 2009, with Western foreign nationals hit the hardest, according to recruitment agency GulfTalent.
The Gulf Arab emirate, famous for its artificial, palm-shaped islands and glitzy lifestyle, has been rocked by a debt crisis that came on the heels of a property downturn.
"One of the biggest developments of 2009 has been a change in the fortunes of Dubai, from the fastest-growing hub in the region, sucking in much of the expatriate talent, to the city experiencing the region's most severe downturn," online recruiter GulfTalent said.
"Across the region, redundancies appear to have disproportionately hit senior executives and western nationals."
Despite Dubai's woes, the UAE remained the most attractive market in the region for expatriate professionals, with 74 percent of people surveyed by GulfTalent saying they wished to stay there.
As a whole, the country's professional workforce fell 16 percent, the survey showed. Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and Bahraini capital Manama followed, shedding 14.4 percent and 12.8 percent of their workforces.
Salary growth also slowed in the region, with the average pay increase at 6.2 percent compared with 11.4 percent in 2008. GulfTalent saw little change in 2010, predicting growth of 6.3 percent.
In 2009, the UAE's average pay rise was 5.5 percent, down from 13.6 percent the previous year. In contrast, Oman saw an 8.4 percent rise, while Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia posted 7 percent increases.
The GulfTalent report was based on an online survey of 24,000 professional employees at the region's 3,000 largest corporations as well as a poll of 900 human resources managers and other interviews and reviews.

Expat workers pose threat to our existence - Minister

Source: Gulf News
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Speaking at the 15th Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) annual conference in the capital, Dr Majeed Al Alawi, Bahrain's Minister of Labour, said, "No one would ever believe that the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, which employ 17 million foreign workers, have more than one million unemployed citizens."
Expatriates who come to the Gulf region for jobs on time-bound assignments never leave, and pose a threat to "our existence", a Bahraini minister warned on Tuesday.
Speaking at the 15th Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) annual conference in the capital, Dr Majeed Al Alawi, Bahrain's Minister of Labour, said, "No one would ever believe that the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, which employ 17 million foreign workers, have more than one million unemployed citizens."
He added that "this influx of foreigners poses a threat to our existence," citing the situation in Singapore and the Maldives, "where foreign workers had been brought on temporary contracts and are now ruling these countries."
Dr Al Alawi, who is driving labour reforms in Bahrain, said the economic crisis has caused 50 per cent of projects in the Gulf to come to a halt. "But this has not been accompanied by a decline in the numbers of foreign workers.
"He who thinks this foreign manpower in the region comes for completing a project and leaves once it is completed is wrong. They come to stay. They buy and sell in their market created on our lands but accommodate no Arabs."
Dr Al Alawi, who was an opposition activist living in exile in London, returned home after the Bahraini ruler declared an amnesty for opposition figures in 1999.
On national identity, he said: "This way countries were lost and we, in the Gulf, are facing the same threat. If this is not happening now, it will happen in the next generation."
Another aspect of the crisis, he said is that the construction sector, which only contributes 8 per cent to the GDP, but accommodates 40 per cent of the foreign workforce.
Dr Al Alawi has advocated ending the sponsorship system and allowing free movement of expatriate workers between jobs in the GCC countries.

No they won't.

Radical concept maybe but why not have a designated spokesperson to avoid, in the morning, having Official X making announcements to the press followed in the afternoon by a complete denial by Official Y.
Sorry, yes, crazy talk, what was I thinking....I'd better go and have a cup of tea and a lie down...
Source: ArabianBusiness.com
====================================
The UAE Ministry of Health has strongly denied it will demand expatriates in the UAE on holiday abroad to produce a medical certificate proving they are not infected with swine flu before returning to the country.An unnamed source within the National Supervisory Committee for Combating Swine Flu had been quoted in a media report on Tuesday as saying that from August any person with swine flu symptoms without the certificate would be refused entry to the UAE .But a senior health official has since quashed suggestions the government planned to take this action.
"The news about this issue is completely untrue," said Dr Ali bin Shuker, director of the Ministry of Health and Chairman of the Technical Health Committee for Combating Swine Flu, speaking later on Tuesday, in a report by WAM news agency.He also denied suggestions, in the same report by UAE daily Gulf News, that shopping malls would be provided with thermal scanners to detect people with the virus. "The idea was not even included on the agenda of the two committees," he said.The National Supervisory Committee for Combating Swine Flu was committed to standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to fight the virus, he said.He said the authorities were striving to implement a public awareness plan about the virus in cooperation with other government stakeholders including ministries of education and higher education and the General Authority for Islamic Affairs and Endowment."The National Supervisory Committee for Combating Swine Flu is handling issues regarding this disease with transparency and clarity out of its keenness for the safety of the public," he said.The committee kept the public informed about the latest developments on swine flu through weekly updates every Monday or interviews officials gave to TV, radio and other media outlets, he added.The two committees are government organisations set up to fight the spread of the virus.The Ministry of Health said on Monday that 11 patients with swine flu had been discharged from hospital after fully recovering from the virus.Thirty five more swine flu patients were still receiving treatment in hospital, with their condition described as stable, it said.

UAE removal firms see big rises in expat departures

Some time ago I spoke to a Dubai moving company, not one of those mentioned in this article, who told me that they were already fully booked and the earliest booking they could take was the second or third week of July.

Its not usual for families to leave the UAE at this time every year as its the end of the Northern hemisphere school term, most have been returning to the home country for several months' holiday but this year the indications are that the number of families departing permanently are far larger than usual. Expats of all ages here are farewell-partied out.

As the article below discusses, removal firms are fully booked, Dubizzle, the UAE online classifieds site, is awash with furniture, cars and white goods for sale - often listed as "Entire Household" and there's a definite drop in the number of cars on the road (unless you're going to Sharjah of course). Whether the departure numbers will prove to be an "exodus" as such won't been seen until September when the children should return to school here, though there are already anecdotes of school classes where only a handful of pupils have expressed an intention to return for the new term.

A friend in Arabian Ranches says so many people have moved out of his street that its become a wasteland. He's waiting for tumbleweed to start blowing down the road like a scene from a Western movie.
-----------------------------------------
UAE-based removal companies said on Thursday they are overwhelmed with bookings next month amid growing evidence of an expatriate exodus as job losses soar.

Some international relocation firms have said they are fully booked through to the second week of July and have made contingency plans for a surge in activity in the last week of June when the schools break up - a time when many more expatriates, hit by recent redundancies, are expected to return home.

And removals experts have reported a dramatic fall in the number of people moving to Dubai with one international firm only doing an average of two moves a week, compared to same time last year when it was handling four to six moves a day.

Most international relocations from Dubai are to the UK, Australia and South Africa - countries which make up a large percentage of the western expatriate population in Dubai.

“The rise of people leaving the country has been on a tremendous scale,” said Jason Tom James, sales manager of ISS Worldwide Movers relocation department.

“Most of the people have lost their jobs. For the month of June we are already full because that’s when the schools close. This year we have seen tremendously large traffic moving out of the country, we can’t accommodate [the flood of business] even with the strength of our staff numbers,” he added.

The UAE's population is expected to contract 5.5 percent this year due to expatriate lay-offs, with Dubai's forecast to shrink 17 percent, Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes said in March.

ISS said relocations out of Dubai, or exports, far outstripped imports. A year ago the firm was dealing with four to six moves into the emirate a day, now they are handling a maximum of two a week.

“Not many people are moving to Dubai. The proportion is very imbalanced,” Tom James said.

Although ISS said it was doing roughly the same amount of international moves a day compared to this time last year - about 10 to 15 - the number of relocations was double in the first quarter of 2009 than the first quarter last year.

The company, which is a subsidiary of Inchcape Shipping Services, the world’s largest independent shipping group, said it did an average of 10 to 12 moves a day in the first quarter of 2009, compared to five to eight in the same period of 2008.

It said it had 300 reservations for June alone and was fully booked until the second week of July.

“The end of June is a very busy time- particularly busy because we will have to work on Fridays, which we usually try to avoid,” Tom James said.

800 Storage and Movers, another Dubai-based removals company, said it is currently doing two international shipments a day. In May last year it was handling an average of three shipments a week. The company said approximately 60 percent of the moves were to the UK with the rest distributed across the GCC.

“There are a lot of international shipments. A lot of people are moving from the country because it is vacation time but also because many have separated from their employers,” said Armand Taleon, manager of 800 Storage and Movers, which employers 40 packing staff and has a fleet of four vans.

“The moving business is very favourable right now because of the crisis- a lot of people are moving. We have contingency plans to hire more trucks in case we need them,” Taleon added.

800 Storage and Movers are fully booked for international shipments until the third week of June.

Kiwis are flying home dejected from tarnished boom-towns like Dubai

From the New Zealand Herald 24 May 09
You may think its taken a while for the news of the downturn in Dubai to arrive in NZ but, hey, its the rugby season so we have far more important things to worry about. On that subject how good was the Chiefs' win? Super 14 final in Pretoria against the Bulls from South Africa who beat the Crusaders yesterday.
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New Zealanders are walking away from their homes in Dubai, driving to the international airport and abandoning their cars with keys in the ignition, as the golden times suddenly end in the towering emirate.

In London, redundant bank traders - once the young Masters of the Universe - take the Underground's Piccadilly Line to Heathrow when they fly out.

Statistics NZ figures show increased numbers of Kiwis returning home (24,500 in the past year to April) though the numbers have not yet reached the heights of 1991 or 2003.

The upsurge is on the flights from the UK, China, Canada, the US and, of course, the United Arab Emirates.

The Department of Labour says this will boost the housing and construction industries. But, at the same time, it means tougher competition for jobs.

The flight home to New Zealand has been unexpected and infuriating for people like Hamilton's Nicholas Down, 43. When he started work at a Dubai real estate company last year, the first villa he sold was in the city's luxurious Palms development. The buyer paid 60 million dirhams ($30 million) in hard cash. It took three days to count, Down says.

But when the money dried up and his company hired Russian estate agents to offer added inducements - entertaining potential buyers with prostitutes - then Down objected. So his bosses gave him one month's notice.

Down, his wife and two children arrived home in December, after emptying out their Dubai apartment and leaving the car at the airport. He did, at least, mail the keys back to his former employer.

The family was lucky to own a home in Hamilton, and Down went on unemployment benefit until he was able to find work with a receivership company.

Dubai police say they have towed 3000 abandoned cars from the airport carpark - and it's not over yet. There are reportedly 90,000 one-way tickets booked out next month.

Among them are James Hamilton and his family, who will return home when the Dubai school year ends. Hamilton was made redundant from his aviation logistics job in November, but he and his Canadian wife were unable to sell their three-bedroom villa until last month.

"What has struck me most is how quick it hit," he said. "Overnight, construction stopped. People were made redundant from the big corporations, and they were gone within a week."

Hamilton, 35, still hopes to return to Dubai some day. The family is putting some furniture in storage there. In the meantime he will look for work here, using his experience to advise companies on how to trade in the Middle East.

Home Sweet Home: Another twist

From Zawya.com, a quote from Brigadier Nasser Al Awadhi Al Minhali, Acting Director-General of the Naturalisation and Residency Department, during the press conference for the official announcement of the new visa:

"The multiple-entry visas may be renewed, but the investor must remain out of the UAE for at least one month. The maximum permitted stay at once is six months," he said.

So, a person pays for a property in full and is then allowed to stay for six months but during that time they're not allowed to work in the UAE. When the six months are up, the property owner has to go leave the UAE and live in another country for a month after which time they are permitted to return to the UAE for another 6 month period.....repeat ad nauseam. Does their family also have to leave the UAE for a month? How does this visa work for non-Emiratis who own multiple properties? One visa for all the properties with the owner having to leave the country only once at the end of every six months? Or will there be a separate visa for each property with the visa date set from the time of full payment of any mortgage on each separate property? What happens if a property drops in value below the set limit? As usual, more questions than answers.

Kuwait travel ban for expats with unpaid loans

From Arabian Business, 10 March '09

Kuwaiti ministers are drawing up plans to stop expatriates leaving without paying off their loans.
Expatriates living in Kuwait could be banned from travelling out of the country unless they can prove they have paid all their debts, it was reported on Tuesday.The new rule is part of plans being drawn up between the Ministry of Communications (MoC) and the Ministry of Interior, according to a senior official at the MoC in an interview with Kuwait daily Kuwait Times. The move comes in the wake of an Audit Bureau report that accused the MoC of negligence in collecting debts owed by a number of corporate companies and domestic customers.

Zakariya Mohammed Al Ansari, the head of the MoC’s accounting and commercial services department confirmed to the newspaper that the two ministries were working closely on plans that wold ensure expatriates did not leave the country without repaying their loans. But he rejected the bureau’s report findings that estimated debts exceeded KD120m ($408m), saying the sum was nearer to KD9m.The department had collected KD117m in unpaid debts in 2008 alone, as well as 98 percent of the amount owed to the ministry by local embassies, Al Ansari added.

[No doubt the UAE is looking at something similar thereby formalising what is already happening here ie companies informing the banks when a person is made redundant. The banks in turn are informing the immigration department who are then refusing exit visas. I've heard of a 22 year old who, when he arrived in Dubai a year or so ago, bought a car but has now been made redundant. He's done the right thing, tried to get another job, tried to sell the car both non-starters in the current economy. When he attempted to fly out of Dubai he was told at the airport that he couldn't leave the country until he "sorted it out". How he'll "sort it out" with no job and no income I have no idea.]

Another "misunderstanding": Only 11 cars left at Dubai airport in past year

Saturday, 07 February 2009
From ArabianBusiness.com

Dubai police said just 11 cars have been left at the airport in the past year not 3,000. (This is surprising because only two days ago, the following quote was in the paper in Dubai: "Every day we find more and more cars," said one senior airport security official, who did not want to be named. "Christmas was the worst - we found more than two dozen on a single day." Apparently the poor man was seeing things.)

Only 11 cars have been abandoned at Dubai airport in over a year, according to the emirate’s chief of police in a stinging attack on the country’s media for misreporting the facts. Clarification on the number of cars left at Dubai International Airport came following repeated media reports that the figure had hit 3,000, as increasing numbers of expatriates fled the emirate as a result of the economic crisis.

Reports of thousands of cars being left at the airport as the global downturn hit Dubai have been circulating in the UAE media for weeks. However, it was an article in The Times of London last week, repeating the 3,000 figure, that prompted lieutenant general Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, chief of the Dubai police department, to speak out.

At an urgent press meeting on Friday, Tamim said the figure was inaccurate and accused journalists of spreading rumours, according to Gulf News who cited Arabic electronic newspaper Elaph.com. "Be assured that if we had at least 50 or 25 or 15 cars abandoned at the airport, I would have told you about it. There have only been 11 cars left at the airport since January 1, 2008, which is before the global economic crisis," Tamim said. Journalists had acted unprofessionally and without objectivity in reporting that Dubai’s economy was collapsing, he added." A reporter should always verify the facts of a report. Did the reporter come back to us or request a comment and we said 'No' to him? Credibility, objectivity and accountability are essential in journalism and this report lacked credibility."

False statements on the market collapsing……are nothing but incorrect rumours. If there is any disruption we will inform the media about it," said Tamim.

Dubai was still witnessing a smooth economy and the problems attributed to the emirate both in the local and international media were “completely false”, Tamim added.“We have to put a limit to this, we are aware of the reports published on this, but now it has gotten out of proportion."