No ban in the passports

The Ministry of Interior yesterday announced that it has stopped stamping the ban on the passports of expatriate workers in the private sector whose residence visas have been cancelled. However the Interior Ministry yesterday released a statement, which said: "In line with the directives of Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior, Naturalisation and Residency departments across the country have stopped stamping the ban on the passports of expatriate workers in the private sector whose residences visas are cancelled, with effect from August 21. "Shaikh Saif"s directives come in line with Cabinet decision No 18 of 2005 whose article No 6 stipulates that Cabinet decision No 30 of 2001 regulating ban stamp rules, shall be cancelled."

Under the new decision, expatriates who leave their jobs or cancel their residence visas will no longer been banned by immigration authorities from re-entering the country, Lieutenant Colonel Rashid Al Khadhar, Legal Adviser of the General Directorate of Naturalisation and Residence at the Ministry of Interior, told on Monday.

Earlier, when expatriates received a labour ban, they would automatically get a ban stamped on their passports by the immigration authorities as well, which did not allow them to enter the UAE during the ban period.