Dubai: A Dubai-based company manager has been fined Dh100,000 by the court for engaging in fraudulent activities against the Nafis programme, as reported by the Dubai Public Prosecution. The manager was brought to court on charges of breaching Emiratisation regulations by misusing two work permits intended for hiring Emirati nationals.

The Khaleej Times disclosed that the manager employed two Emirati women under false pretenses, issuing fake contracts to unjustly claim adherence to the Emiratisation mandate. This maneuver was aimed at securing financial incentives from the government's Nafis programme, designed to support the integration of Emiratis into the private workforce.

Despite the women being employed for a brief period of four months, their primary goal was to exploit the scheme's offer of a Dh5,000 monthly subsidy.

The judicial decision mandates the manager to pay a Dh100,000 fine, an amount that will increase proportionally with the number of workers involved. Additionally, the two implicated employees have been ordered to repay the total sum of Dh20,000 they received.

A recent inspection by the Ministry of Human Resources uncovered that, since the latter half of 2022, as many as 1,077 private entities have engaged in deceptive Emiratisation practices across the UAE. These companies employed 1,818 citizens in a manner that breached legal standards, attempting to falsely meet Emiratisation quotas by illegitimately hiring Emirati nationals.

Such deceptive Emiratisation practices include employing UAE nationals in nominal roles without actual responsibilities to artificially inflate the company's Emiratisation figures, or rehiring Emiratis to manipulate data and gain undue advantages from Emiratisation incentives.