Minister of Health warns that expat workers are forging medical results

Workers from some countries who are required to undergo exams before arriving in the UAE are falsifying reports and are found to have communicable illnesses once in the country.

ABU DHABI // Workers are forging medical tests in their home countries for jobs in the UAE, the FNC has been told.

The Minister of Health, Dr Abdul Rahman Al Owais, said the Government could not rely solely on health checks conducted abroad as some workers were found to have communicable illnesses after they arrived and had further medical tests.

But Dr Al Owais said workers from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Egypt and the Philippines should still have tests at home before being granted UAE visas.

“This is not because of bad health checks in those countries but because of forgery,” he said.

The minister was responding to Ali Al Nuaimi’s suggestion that more countries should conduct pre-visa tests to lessen queues at health check centres.

Mr Al Nuaimi (Ajman) said the influx of workers was causing major delays.

“In 2013 alone we had four million workers come in,” he said. “The queues are long and it has proven problematic.”

Dr Al Owais promised Mr Al Nuaimi that the ministry would soon roll out a project to speed up medical exams.

Plans include more clinics and possibly a mobile clinic to conduct checks onsite for large construction companies.