Dubai, Oct 15 (IANS): Hundreds of Indian nurses diploma certificates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were at risk of losing their jobs due to a new educational requirement, a media report said.

More than 200 nurses have already lost their jobs, while several others have been demoted after the UAE made a bachelor's degree in nursing as the minimum educational qualification for registered nurses, the Gulf News said in the report on Monday.

According to some of the affected, nurses with diploma certificates, who continue to be retained, were required to do a Post Basic BSc Nursing Programme from universities in the UAE accredited by the Ministry of Education (MoE) by 2020.

However, several nurses, who have enrolled for the programmes in different universities, were now facing another crisis -- their requests for equivalency certificate for their diploma certificates were getting rejected.

The MoE is issuing equivalency certificate for diploma certificates obtained from the state of Kerala, the nursing council of which is the only Indian nursing body recognised by the ministry, the affected nurses said.

Kerala sends the highest number of nurses to the country.

"Majority of us are hailing from Kerala itself. But we studied outside Kerala for our nursing diploma 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 would 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.