Hundreds of Indian nurses working in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) are at risk of losing their respective jobs due to a new educational requirement, news reports have said.
More than 200 nurses have already lost their jobs, while several others have been demoted after the UAE made the ‘Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing’ as the minimum educational qualification for registered nurses. All the affected nurses are diploma holders.
UAE’s Ministry of Education, has, however, recommended that the affected nurses can enrol for the ‘Post Basic Bsc Nursing Programme’ from universities in the UAE to meet the educational requirements.
But the trouble for the Indian nurses hasn’t ended there. Reports suggested that the federal government has refused to accept the diploma certificates of nurses who are not from Kerala. For the uninitiated, two-third of Indian nurses engaged in the health care sector in UAE are from Kerala.
“Majority of us are hailing from Kerala itself. But we studied outside Kerala for nursing courses. A few nurses from other Indian states are also facing the same issue,” said one of the affected nurses.
“Many of us have already lost our jobs and now we are unable to continue our studies and apply for another job, leaving us in a ‘do or die’ situation,” said another.
The nurses said they have decided to approach India’s Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan, who is scheduled to visit the UAE this week, seeking his urgent intervention to solve the issue.