Murtaza Khan Bio

Murtaza Khan

Board Secretary
AmCham Abu Dhabi
Chair, Legal Affairs Committee
AmCham Abu Dhabi

Managing Partner, Middle East and Africa
Fragomen

Murtaza is Fragomen’s Regional Managing Partner for the Middle East and Africa with over 20 years of immigration experience. He has been based in the Middle East for over 14 years and is responsible for Fragomen’s practices and network partners across the region. In this capacity, he has extensive experience working with large global and regional private sector companies, public sector organizations and SMEs.

Murtaza has deep knowledge of regional business immigration regulatory frameworks across the Middle East and Africa, with a particular focus on Saudi Arabia and UAE (onshore and free zone). His experience extends to practical mobility and deployment issues, particularly the transfer of skilled migrant workers into the region. He advises clients on the implementation of various policies, such as nationalization schemes (Saudisation/Nitaqat, Emiratisation), short- and long-term skilled and unskilled migration categories, Embassy/Consular processes and operating with government service centres. Murtaza’s client portfolio includes a giga project in Saudi Arabia, in addition to working with Fortune 500 companies in a variety of sectors and individual skilled migrants. He delivers strategic immigration and mobility advisory support and programme design and management tailored to the region’s requirements and best practices.

Experienced in business migration across the region, Murtaza has spoken at numerous global and regional events, and has published several articles expressing thought leadership on migration. As a representative of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Business Mechanism, he advised and provided input on intergovernmental processes facilitated by the United Nations in adopting the Global Compact on Migration in 2018. He continues to represent the private sector at the GFMD. During 2020, he provided detailed recommendations from a private sector perspective on the governance of labour migration at regional consultative processes, including the GFMD Abu Dhabi Dialogue Regional Consultation and African Union Regional Consultation. He has also provided governance of labour migration recommendations regarding the United Arab Emirates in 2018 and Qatar in 2019. Murtaza has co-authored a detailed publication on “The Challenges and Opportunities of Business Immigration Structures in the Maghreb Region” in January 2020.

Murtaza serves as an Advisory Committee member on the UAE Ministry of Human Resources & Emiratisation’s initiatives with the International Organisation on Migration. In addition, he represents the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) on the Advisory Committee for research on themes, including changes to the employment landscape in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the impact on labour supply and demand in the Abu Dhabi Dialogue corridors, and leveraging technology to improve labour mobility governance.

Prior to joining Fragomen in 2006, Murtaza worked in the Audit and Assurance division at a Big Four accounting firm in London and Sydney. He worked in Government and Public Sector Advisory, Immigration Services and Audit & Assurance. His experience includes working on largescale public sector projects incorporating public private partnerships and significant housing developments. Consequently, he has exposure to a variety of industries, including information technology, telecommunications, outsourcing, and media and entertainment.