People coming to work in the UAE will soon be required to submit to a medical test in their home country before arriving. The move is part of an overhaul of the medical requirements to obtain a residency visa. Previously, workers had to have only one medical test here in the UAE.
The new law is mainly intended to protect UAE residents against infectious diseases. And in this regard, the policy is a fine step. But the move does raise questions that must be addressed.
In announcing the new policy yesterday, Dr Mahmoud Fikri, the assistant undersecretary for health policies at the Ministry of Health, said, for example, that an astounding one in five workers arriving from Asian countries in 2009 were diagnosed with tuberculosis. The goal is to reduce this.
The new law will also prevent workers from being unnecessarily deported. Many spend all their savings to come work here. To be forced to return to their families empty-handed must be a crushing experience.
But the plan faces some pitfalls.
First, the UAE must find a way to ensure that the tests conducted in foreign countries are carried out by reputable clinics and are accurate. Such tests can be easily forged and business in fake health reports and other documents is booming around the world. Last year, for example, two men were accused of providing labourers fraudulent health certificates required by the Ministry of Health for as much as Dh2,700 (US$735).
Authorities can expect more of the same - especially since they can't monitor what goes on in foreign countries.
The law will also need to be supported by other measures, including more education. Infectious diseases often spread because many people fail to report them. People can also be unaware they are carrying a disease - many people carry TB for years without knowing it, for example. Meningitis, a contagious and deadly spinal infection, is also often only identified once several cases have been reported.
Overworked doctors at public hospitals and clinics also sometimes fail to spot infections.
The law is indeed a good first step, but will need strict vigilance.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
Profile of Hala Insurance
Date Started: September 2018
Founders: Walid and Karim Dib
Based: Abu Dhabi
Employees: Nine
Amount raised: $1.2 million
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, AB Accelerator, 500 Startups, private backers