Dubai authorities have decided to limit the issuance of a driver’s license to certain categories of residents of the United Arab Emirates in order to reduce the dramatically increased number of cars on the roads of the emirate.
According to the Gulf News newspaper, a driver’s license will not be issued to residents in the hundred working categories. This list includes: nannies, cooks, carpenters, domestic workers, watchmen, tailors, waiters in cafes and eateries, gardeners, bakers, unskilled workers and others. From now on, residents holding positions that do not require higher education will no longer be able to take exams and receive driver’s licenses in the UAE.
A representative of the Dubai Emirate’s police said the UAE’s Ministry of the Interior sent a circular to all traffic police departments stating that people who have one of the hundred categories on the new list are on a visa are disqualified. "The purpose of the new order is to reduce the huge flow of cars that have recently appeared on the roads of the UAE. One of these tools will be to reduce the number of expatriates who will be allowed to obtain a driver’s license in the country," said an official representative of the Dubai police. “This is not a new law, just up to now the Ministry of Internal Affairs has made an indulgence for all categories of workers and allowed them to obtain driver’s licenses, but due to the problem of the emirate’s oversaturation with cars and huge traffic jams, the law’s restrictions will come into force again.”
Recall that a neighboring Sharjah emirate imposed a similar restriction on obtaining a driver’s license, where 86 categories of residents are forbidden to accept documents, and only university diploma holders have the right to drive vehicles. Representatives and instructors of driving courses, schools and institutes, by no means, do not share the optimism of the authorities regarding the introduction of restrictions on obtaining a driver’s license, as this will greatly affect their income and, possibly, lead to losses.
