Strict measures to be taken against illegal visa traders

February 10, 2013

Adel-Fakeih

Jeddah, Feb 10: The Ministry of Labor has stepped up its efforts to contain the menace of illegal visa trading in the Kingdom with the help of foreign consultancy companies.

“The ministry is currently seeking the cooperation of international consultancy companies to conduct field studies on the labor contracting systems in seven major labor supplying countries,” Minister of Labor Adel Al-Fakeih said in a statement to a local newspaper.

The ministry does not want any loopholes or ambiguity in the laws that could be exploited for illegal recruitment practices, the minister added.

The ministry has banned all kinds of activities that could lead to trading in manpower including selling visas, taking money to facilitate entry or exit visas, getting iqamas or labor permits.

“Those who engage in illegal visa trading will not be allowed to import labor for a duration of five years and those who repeat the violation will never be issued a visa for labor recruitment again,” Fakeih said.

The ministry is also taking steps to ensure maximum transparency in matters pertaining to issuing visas and recruiting foreign labor. One such step the ministry is taking includes setting up a portal, in which contracting parties and embassies can track the processing of a labor visa from the moment it is issued until the completion of the contract agreement with workers, including the salary agreement upon.

“Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has approved the appointment of 1,000 additional inspectors in the ministry. The Interior Ministry is collaborating with the Labor Ministry to set up a committee to halt the illegal trade of foreign workers. Saudization committees will also be reactivated for the same purpose. All these efforts will produce remarkable results in ending the illegal trade in the near future,” the minister added.

He said regulations such as the ones designed to curb commercial cover-ups and to limit the remittance of expatriate workers to the salaries stated in their contracts, aim to reduce the drain on the national economy.

Affirming the success of the ministry in providing employment opportunities for the Saudi youth the minister said, “The Nitaqat program has succeeded in employing 514,659 young men and women since it was implemented in June 2011.”

The country’s statistical department revealed that unemployment among men fell to 6.1 percent in 2012.

In addition, the minister highlighted that measures have been taken to prevent any kind of foul play in the implementation of the Nitaqat program. These measures include the ministry’s insistence that the lowest salary for a Saudi should be SR 3,000 and a student employed in the private sector would not be considered as a full employee.

The minister also stressed the ministry’s determination to continue its efforts to find more employment opportunities for women in the private sector.

“There is no turning back on the policy to employ women. We are striving to rectify mistakes and are striving to ensure that regulations are soundly implementation. The government’s orders and regulations are in line with Shariah law,” the minister said in response to objections from some members of the community about employing women.

The minister also affirmed the ministry’s strong stand against any criticism with regards to the recently introduced expatriate levy. He pointed out that the levy will not harm the private sector, but rather aims to regulate and improve the labor market.

“There are many countries that raise the cost of employing foreign workers in order to protect the local workforce. The labor levy in some countries is 10 times higher than the monthly SR 200 in the Kingdom,” he said justifying the ministry’s decision.

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Agencies
April 22,2025

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Palestinian officials have raised the alarm about the dire situation of abductees held in Israeli prisons. The warning came after several abductees released from Israeli jails gave harrowing accounts of conditions in the regime’s prisons.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) said in a statement on Monday that the number of Palestinian abductees killed in Israeli jails since the regime’s genocide in Gaza started has surged to 65, including a child.

It added that inmates abducted in Gaza account for at least 40 of those fatalities.

The society emphasized that among the slain detainees are 74 whose bodies are still being held by the Israeli regime, 63 of whom have been held since the beginning of the genocidal war.

Meanwhile, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs warned of inhumane conditions at Israel’s Damon Prison, where female abductees are enduring extreme hardship.

The Commission reported that food is scarce and of poor quality, leading to digestive issues and severe weight loss among inmates.

The Commission warned that Palestinian abductees are held in filthy, blood-stained cells, given only a small mattress and no food.

Most of the abductees also face insults and humiliation during their incarceration by the regime.  

It added that prisoner Karam Musa, 53, from the town of Surra in the Nablus Governorate, who was detained on February 25, 2025, was kept in a blood-stained and filthy cell, with no room for prayer, no food, and only a small mattress.

According to Karam, the Israeli Prison Service provides one plate of legumes for eight prisoners. The break period has been reduced to one hour, during which the prisoners shower.

A 44-year-old prisoner named Hanin Jaber lost eight kilograms due to malnutrition during her five months of detention.

Jaber was arrested on December 3, 2024, while out on a walk with her children in the park, on charges of sheltering and feeding her son, whom the Israeli regime claims is "wanted."

Prisoner Fidaa Suhail Assaf, 49, from the town of Kafr Laqif in the Qalqilya Governorate, has been suffering from leukemia for a year before her detention.
 

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News Network
April 14,2025

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Israel has prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from entering the holy land of Jerusalem to celebrate a Christian festivity at the city’s churches.

The Palestinian WAFA news agency reported that only a limited number of Palestinian Christians were able to attend celebrations in al-Quds for the Palm Sunday feast day. 

Israeli forces issued only 6,000 permits for West Bank Christians, although the population exceeds 50,000, the report added.

The occupation’s soldiers imposed strict measures at checkpoints surrounding al-Quds and its Old City, home to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

“This is the second consecutive year that only a small number of pilgrims are able to participate in Holy Week and Easter celebrations in al-Quds, due to the ongoing conflict,” said Father Ibrahim Faltas, deputy head of the Custody of the Holy Land.

Christians in the Gaza Strip commemorated Palm Sunday at Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, just hours after an Israeli aerial assault on the nearby al-Ahli Arab hospital.

In a statement, the Gaza-based Hamas resistance group censured Israel for restricting West Bank Palestinians’ access to al-Quds.

The Israeli move is a part of a broader racist and fascist policy aimed at isolating Palestinians from their homeland and holy sites, it added.

Hamas also called on all churches across the world to condemn the occupation and its ongoing attacks on freedom of worship and access to holy sites.

It further urged the international community to take serious steps towards ending Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, which is aimed at annihilating Palestinians and liquidating their cause.

Israel launched its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

After one and a half years of war, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives in the besieged territory, despite killing at least 50,944 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 116,156 others.

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News Network
April 18,2025

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The US military has struck the western Yemeni oil port of Ras Isa, leaving dozens of workers and paramedics dead, and dozens more injured.

The facility in Hudaydah governorate was hit at least two times on Thursday night, with the second strike coming as civil defense and rescue teams were extinguishing fires and recovering victims. The second attack killed at least five paramedics.

The Palestinian Information Center and al-Manar TV now report that at least 38 people have been killed in that attack, while 102 others injured.

The Yemeni government slammed the attack as a clear war crime aimed at supporting the Zionist regime and enabling it to continue the Gaza genocide.

It said the strikes prove that the US deliberately attacks civilian infrastructure in Yemen with false justifications.

The government vowed that this crime would not pass without painful punishment, and the US would reap nothing but humiliating defeat and failure.

The US military claimed the port was a source of fuel for the Ansarullah resistance movement.

The governorates of Sana'a, al-Bayda and Hudaydah were also hit with multiple strikes.

The United States intensified its deadly attacks on the country last month at President Donald Trump’s direct orders.

Washington claims the raids are strictly aimed at protecting shipping activity around Yemen, alleging that the regional waterways’ maritime security had been endangered by Sana’a.

Yemeni officials have, however, roundly rejected such claims, underlining that the country only targeted vessels belonging to the Israeli regime and ships taking supplies to it.

The operations implemented by Yemen’s Armed Forces began in October 2023, when the Israeli regime, the US’s most cherished regional ally, began taking the Gaza Strip under a genocidal war.

More than 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed as a result of the warfare, which receives hugely enhanced and unstinting arms support on the part of Washington.

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