NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL/GULF TODAY

Silver taxi drivers in capital hoping to see richer days

ABU DHABI - MAY 06: Taxi drivers gave a cautious welcome yesterday to the unified pay structure being drawn up between the capital’s silver cab firms.

“This is the first we are hearing of it, but regardless it is good news,” said Najam Khan, who drives for Arabia Taxi. “If it is all the same, then it is good for everybody.”

On Monday, the seven franchise holders announced that new drivers would all be offered the same package of salary, commission and accommodation.

An agreement, which will include subcontracting recruitment and training to a single agency, was expected to be signed today, and will require government approval.

Details of the common pay structure were still being drawn up and it was not clear whether it would apply only to new drivers.

Mr Khan, 24, said there were discrepancies between the terms offered by different companies. For example, his relative, Akram Khan, also 24, who works for National Taxi, receives 30 per cent commission on whatever he earns.

On the other hand, Arabia has a sliding scale for commission.

“When I have more than Dh300, I get Dh35,” he said. “If I bring in less, then the percentage is less, so at least there is more money in my pocket than Akram has. He feels bad but his is the company rule so what can we do?”

The differences affect how much they can send home to their families in the Pakistani province of Peshawar.

It is a cause of disappointment for Akram.

 “I send less money home than him,” he said. “It’s not nice because I am embarrassed and we have a difficult time explaining to our families about the structure of commission here. They don’t understand. We’re the same age, we drive the same kind of taxi but one of us is making less.”

Akram has been driving a taxi for the past three months, while Najam has had a licence for the past year.

“Because of this, I want to shift to his company as soon as I am eligible to,” said Akram. “But in both our cases, we don’t get any salary. There is an agreement but we don’t even get one dirham of salary. We only get commission.”

Another driver, Mahnoor Malik, said of the unified pay structure: “It would be nice if it was applied to me and those who are working already because if they apply it only to the new recruits, then we will feel very bad.”

Trafficking trials on the rise

ABU DHABI - May 06: UAE courts have handled 28 human trafficking cases in the past two years, according to a government minister who described the number as relatively high compared with other countries facing the same problem.

In 2008 there had been 18 cases involving 36 defendants and 30 victims, he said, while in 2007 there had been 10, for which no breakdown was available.

Dr Anwar Gargash, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, was answering a question from a council member in his capacity as the head of the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking (NCCHT).

“These numbers indicate that there is a real effort being exerted,” he said.

He said some other countries had up to 40 cases handled by their courts every year, although he did not name any specific states.

In 2006, the federal Government introduced a law setting a minimum sentence of five years in prison for human traffickers – the first such law in the Arab world.

Mr Gargash said the NCCHT was drafting a document that would serve as a memorandum of understanding to be signed by the UAE with other countries to combat the crime.

He also told the FNC it would issue its second annual report in less than two weeks.

 “The report was successful because it unifies the national message for the country, answers the relevant questions and bridges the gaps,” he said.

The committee was training law enforcement personnel on how to uncover cases of trafficking that might be disguised as other forms of crime, such as prostitution. He added that police were being taught to see prostitutes as possible victims of trafficking rather than as criminals.

According to the Global Report on Trafficking Persons, released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in February, most such victims in this country were women from Uzbekistan, Moldova and South Asia who had been forced into prostitution. More than half of the convicted offenders were South Asian men.

The committee is also involved, according to Dr Gargash, in organising national efforts to provide psychological and social support for victims.

These measures included a shelter for up to 30 women and children in Abu Dhabi, established in 2008, and another in Dubai.

Praising the work of the women responsible for running the shelters, Dr Gargash said that more such centres were likely to be built.

The minister also said the committee served as a voice for the UAE in international forums “because in the past there were attempts to exploit some gaps”.

“We’ve built real capabilities to track human trafficking.”

Last month, Obeid Salem al Zaabi, the country’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, told the world body’s human rights council that the UAE fully understood the seriousness of human trafficking.

RTA trains drivers on safe evacuation

DUBAI - MAY 06:THE Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched a series of drills to train public bus fleet drivers on the safe clearance of buses in emergency cases that warrant immediate response to contain the situation and safeguard the lives of passengers.

According to the Director of Bus Fleet Drivers Affairs Department at Public Transport Agency, Mohammed Ahmed Bin Fahad, "Drivers have got to know the locations and operation of all emergency exits and windows on both sides of the bus, rear exits as well as roof hatches. They have to know the location and method of lifting the fire extinguisher and First Aid Kit from their brackets, as well as the location and usage of any communication equipment on board the bus (two-way radio)."