Dubai, January 19: A businessman was fined Dh1.6million by the Ajman immigration court after he was caught employing 16 people who entered the country illegally.
The UAE national businessman, 54, got the illegal immigrants to work for him in commercial work in his outlets and company.
A senior official at Ajman Immigration Department said the 16 people were caught by immigration officers in December and they were all detained in the immigration detention centre.
Their employer was referred to public prosecution in January.
Imran Mubarak, deputy director of Residency and Immigration Affairs at Ajman Public Prosecution said the man was fined Dh100,000 for each of the 16 immigrants based on the federal residency law.
Most cases involve people overstaying their visa, failing to renew the residency visa or entering the country illegally. The cases are referred to prosecution by immigration.
During 2009, the prosecution referred 3,600 cases to the special immigration court.
Our RAK Correspondent Adds: The Naturalisation and Residency Court has fined two Asian employers Dh50,000 each for employing two workers not officially sponsored by them. Judge Ahmed Al Amir who presided over the case said the employees, both Asians, were arrested during a routine inspection.
They confessed to having been employed by the Asian employers although they were not on their companies’ sponsorship. Investigations revealed that they had absconded from their sponsors and were working for the accused parties who were also aware of this. The court official said the two workers have been deported.
Additionally, the court fined four Asians, between Dh2,000 to Dh5,000 followed by deportation, for their illegal stay in the country. The Asians had been arrested by the RAK Naturalisation and Residence Department’s inspectors from different areas, while staying in the country after their visas had expired.
Also on Sunday, two Asian employees were fined Dh10,000 each for illegally returning to the UAE on forged passports after they were deported. The court official said that the Asians had been deported earlier by the Naturalisation and Residency Court after they were caught staying illegally in the country. The court ordered that the duo be deported. The department’s inspectors revealed that they had detained 3,404 violators of the residency laws during 2009.
Col. Sultan Yousuf Al Nuaimi, Director of the RAK NRD, said that the majority of these illegal residents were of Asian nationalities and were arrested in different inspection campaigns.
–Agencies–