Give them back their passports!

If this is not most ironic, please tell me what is. In UAE, it is a common practice for employers to keep the passports of their employees, especially of their blue collar employees. According to the UAE Ministry of Labour though, this is illegal. However, according to a Gulf News (the most widely circulated daily in UAE) report, all ministries, including those of Finance and Industry, Interior, Labour and Social Affairs are retaining passports of their expatriate staff. Some ministries keep passports on instructions of the Civil Service Department, others on directives from the Ministry of Finance and Industry, which demand that passports of cashiers must be retained. Doesn’t that reek of the most abominable hypocrisy?