Production firm demands action on illegal workers

The Frame's Sayed claims regional rivals are working illegally in the UAE.

 A Dubai Studio City production house has called on UAE authorities to stop rivals from across the region taking on jobs in the emirate without acquiring the proper permits.

Tarif Sayed, managing director of The Frame, claimed he often loses business to production houses from Beirut who send staff to Dubai on visit visas, rent a villa for a short period, conclude the job and leave the country.

Sayed added that UAE authorities should do more to protect local businesses from the threat of those working illegally in the country.

“How can we possibly compete with outside production houses when we pay such steep rents in Dubai?” asked Sayed.

“Outsiders should not be permitted to come here and steal our business. The government must protect people who have invested in their country.”

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Our production company has had exactly the same experience as our colleagues at The Frame, with both Lebanese and Indian   4 Comments Read more comments »

Sayed said that on more than two occasions in the past six months, he has seen clients who took his ideas and contracted a production house in Beirut to do his work.

“This is common practice here and the government must crack down on this business. I suggested a format and quoted a price for doing the job. They then went to a company in Beirut who offered to do it at 75% of the price I quoted. They can afford to do that since they neither have to pay for a business license here nor incur the huge rents we face in Dubai. These companies come here on visit visas, complete their jobs and leave.”

According to Sayed, a luxury office in Lebanon’s downtown with plenty of talent at their doorstep is 50% cheaper than he pays in Dubai.

It is common practice, however, for production houses in the emirate to bring in directors of photography and specialised crew from other countries for want of enough skills within Dubai. 

A considerable number of production houses hire specialists from Western countries, who get a visit visa on arrival and shoot here.

Bigger houses such as Filmworks, however, reiterate that they only bring in people if they are not available in the local market.

“We only bring in people to complement the local crew, said Filmworks CEO Tim Smythe. “We never bring in people if we can hire locally. For example, for Syriana, 40% of the crew came from Dubai. On The Kingdom, 60% of the crew was from Dubai. On City of Life, 80% of the crew was from Dubai.

"The purpose of bringing in international crew is to train up local crew so that our crew base expands." 

Smythe also added that it only arranges crew visas through Studio City as required.

Jamal Al Sharif, executive director of Dubai Studio City, said the law clearly states that no company is permitted to undertake a job in the emirate without acquiring the necessary legal permissions.

“We do get requests from companies who want to shoot here but do not have a licence to operate here," he said. " When they come to us, we give them a list of the companies who are licensed to operate from Dubai. They then must apply for permissions through one of these entities.”