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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News Network
November 27,2024

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Gaza health authorities say Israel’s military has "erased” over 1,400 Palestinian families in the besieged territory over the past year.

The Health Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the Israeli regime "completely erased about 1,410 families, numbering 5,444 people, from the civil registry during the same period.”

It said that there were 3,463 families with only one survivor, while 2,287 families had more than one survivor.

In northern Gaza, Israel’s warplanes have continued dropping bombs over Palestinian families, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

It said one airstrike hit a family home in Jabalia, causing numerous casualties on Tuesday.

According to Gaza's civil defense agency, at least seven people were killed and several others wounded in the attack.

Another person was killed in a strike on a house in nearby Beit Lahia, a town in northern Gaza, which has been declared “a disaster area" by the municipality due to "the Israeli war of extermination and siege, and it has no food, water, hospitals, doctors, services, or communications."

The health ministry said, “Israeli forces killed 14 people and injured 108 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours.”

“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them.”

International organizations and leaders believe that Israel’s genocidal war, now in its second year, is a deliberate attempt to destroy the population of Gaza.

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News Network
November 17,2024

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An Israeli airstrike on the office of Syria’s Baath party in Lebanon’s capital Beirut has killed the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah's Media Relations Officer, Mohammad Afif, reports say.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli raid struck the Ba'ath party’s building in central Beirut district of Ras Al-Naba'a on Sunday, adding that the strike was an attempt to assassinate the leader of the resistance media front.

According to Baath Secretary-General Ali Hijazi, Afif was having a meeting in the Baath Party headquarters when Israel carried out the attack.

"Afif did not fight with weapons and did not lead a military unit in Hezbollah. Rather, he led a media unit," he said.

Reuters, Sky News, Al Jazeera and a number of Henrew-language media reported that Afif was killed in the Israeli strike.

However, Hezbollah has not yet confirmed Afif’s death or whether he was present at the site or not.

Earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least one person was killed and three others injured after an Israeli strike targeted a central district in Beirut.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network reported that five people were killed in the attack.

The latest development came after Afif said Hezbollah was behind the Caesarea operation and targeting Netanyahu’s home during a speech at the Ghobeiry area in the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 22.

This was the second assassination attempt on Afif in the last two months, after he survived an attack on the Hezbollah media relations office several weeks ago.

Israel launched a ground assault and massive air campaign against Lebanon in late September after a year of exchanging fire across the Lebanese border in parallel with the Gaza war.

At least 3,287 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past year, with the vast majority in the past seven weeks. Another 14,222 have been wounded, mostly women and children.

In response to the ongoing aggression, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has been staging hundreds of retaliatory strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli forces trying to advance on southern Lebanese areas.

The movement has vowed to sustain its strikes until the regime ends the escalation.

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News Network
November 26,2024

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The extremist Israeli finance minister has called for the occupation of the Gaza Strip and halving the population of the Palestinian territory that is reeling from almost 14 months of genocide.  

Bezalel Smotrich, who has a history of racist statements against Palestinians, made the controversial remarks during a conference of the Yesha Council settler group on Monday.

“We can occupy Gaza and thin the population by half within two years,” through encouraging the so-called “voluntary emigration," he said.

The racist minister also urged the Tel Aviv regime to use its favorable ties with the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump to implement the plan.

“Occupying Gaza is not a dirty word,” he further claimed.

Once the success of the “voluntary emigration" is proven in the besieged Gaza Strip, it can be replicated in the occupied West Bank, he added.

Last month, Smotrich urged the full annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, asserting that Israel should unequivocally declare there would be no Palestinian state.

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

However, nearly 14 months into the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives of finding captives held in Gaza and eliminating Hamas.

So far, the occupying regime has killed at least 44,235 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 104,638 others, in Gaza. 

It has been committing the war crimes of starvation and of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population in the besieged territory.

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