Preferring Indians over Pakistanis, UAE bans Islamabad workers to strengthen its national security

The coronavirus pandemic is rapidly reshaping global geopolitics and diplomacy and a number of countries are seizing the opportunity to take a couple of tough decisions that they would have otherwise faced difficulty in implementing. In a recent move to ensure its national security and law and order, the UAE government, through an order issued on November 18 has banned workers from 13 nations from entering the country till further orders.

Citing a source, a story of Al Jazeera highlighted, “the UAE had temporarily stopped issuing new visas to Afghans, Pakistanis, and citizens of several other countries over security concerns.” The list of the countries included war-torn nations like Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan to countries from the anti-Saudi bloc like Turkey and Pakistan.

It also highlighted that Pakistan has been facing the heat before the issuance of the order banning workers from 13 countries. The news report highlighted, “Last week, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the UAE had stopped processing new visas for its citizens and those of some other countries.. Islamabad said it was seeking information from the UAE on the reason for the suspension but that it thought it was related to the coronavirus pandemic.”

News reports from the Pakistani media reveal that the Pakistani government was not at all informed about the decision. The Pakistani leadership has begun to target the UAE government as it believes that this step is ‘Pakistan specific’ and pandemic is not the actual reason to ban Pakistani workers. Senator Anwar Baig, who also runs a recruitment agency said, “the novel coronavirus was the reason behind the ban, India should have been in the list since it has reported one of the highest cases in the world… the suspension of work or employment visas were worrisome and he believed that the ban was Pakistan specific.”