EXPAT LIFE
By Joe Avancena
Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia appear to be healthier than other expatriates, according to a medical and dental survey conducted in Dammam last week by the Mohammad Al-Dossary Hospital (MDH) in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and the Overseas Filipino Workers Congress in the Eastern Province (OFW-EP), an accredited community partner of the embassy.
The result of the MDH medical and dental survey shows that of the 359 Filipino workers who underwent a series of medical tests, 284 were found to be healthy.
At least 75 Filipino workers were found to be having medical problems, which included high blood pressure, high sugar, high cholesterol, high/low thyroid stimulating hormones, low blood hemoglobin level (HB).
The first 250 workers were given free dental and eye examinations. Women, who were 35 years of age and above, were given free thyroid test.
Philippine Ambassador Antonio Villamor, who inaugurated the free medical outreach event together with labor attaché David Des T. Dicang and MDH director general Abdul Fettah Ennayal, expressed satisfaction on the result of the medical survey.
“One of the embassy’s focuses and concerns is to achieve a good state of health for our overseas workers, something our foreign missions have been emphasizing. We are happy that our workers in Saudi Arabia are comparably healthier than other expatriate groups, which shows that we are succeeding in our drive of reminding our workers to always observe a healthy lifestyle,” Villamor said.
He lauded the MDH for conducting free medical check-ups.
Ennayal, the MDH director general, said that it was one of the social responsibilities of his hospital to conduct free medical check up for members of the expatriate communities.
“MDH has been known for being active in rendering services to the expatriate communities, irrespective of their races and social and religious beliefs. We are happy to be of help in making people aware of their medical condition so as to prevent long term treatment,” Ennayel said.
Ms. Mary Jane P. Tupas, director of nursing of MDH and also president of the OFW Congress in the Eastern Province, and Rajkumar Nair, manager of the office of the director general, were credited for successfully organizing the free medical camp. – SG
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
KSA creating more job opportunities for Saudis and expatriates
GENEVA – Abdul Wahid Al-Hameed, the Saudi Deputy Minister of Labor, told G20 ministers of labor Monday night that the Kingdom held a “significant economic position in the world” and that it’s handling of the global financial crisis was “creating jobs for its own citizens and those of other countries”.
“The Kingdom recruited 1,500,000 workers from abroad last year,” Al-Hameed told the ministers’ meeting at the International Labor Conference currently in progress in Geneva.
“Their money transfers have contributed in strengthening the economies of their home countries.”
Remittances from Saudi Arabia’s estimated nine million mostly Asian foreign workers are soaring as the Kingdom recruits more of them for its massive development plan.
At $18.4 billion in 2008 and 15.0 billion in the first eight months of 2009, earnings sent abroad equalled four percent of Saudi gross domestic product, according to government data.
Saudi Arabia was the world’s third largest source of foreign worker remittances in 2008 after the United States and Russia – far larger economies – according to the World Bank.
Al-Hameed told ministers that the G20’s focus needed to extend beyond their own individual nations and concentrate on Third World countries suffering from the effects of the economic crisis.
As an active member of the G20, the Kingdom, Al-Hameed said, regarded as significant recommendations produced by the group’s labor ministers in Washington last April, and noted that Saudi Arabia had discussed them with GCC ministers of labor in a meeting on the sidelines of the current International Labor Conference. - SPA/SG
Saudi Gazette
“The Kingdom recruited 1,500,000 workers from abroad last year,” Al-Hameed told the ministers’ meeting at the International Labor Conference currently in progress in Geneva.
“Their money transfers have contributed in strengthening the economies of their home countries.”
Remittances from Saudi Arabia’s estimated nine million mostly Asian foreign workers are soaring as the Kingdom recruits more of them for its massive development plan.
At $18.4 billion in 2008 and 15.0 billion in the first eight months of 2009, earnings sent abroad equalled four percent of Saudi gross domestic product, according to government data.
Saudi Arabia was the world’s third largest source of foreign worker remittances in 2008 after the United States and Russia – far larger economies – according to the World Bank.
Al-Hameed told ministers that the G20’s focus needed to extend beyond their own individual nations and concentrate on Third World countries suffering from the effects of the economic crisis.
As an active member of the G20, the Kingdom, Al-Hameed said, regarded as significant recommendations produced by the group’s labor ministers in Washington last April, and noted that Saudi Arabia had discussed them with GCC ministers of labor in a meeting on the sidelines of the current International Labor Conference. - SPA/SG
Saudi Gazette
Emirati paper: UAE “unfairly” targeted for migrant rights abuses
A recent editorial in Gulf News, the UAE’s most popular English-language newspaper, lavishly praised the UAE’s treatment of migrant workers, ignoring the egregious human rights violation migrant workers are subjected to in the Emirates.
The editorial highlighted the International Labor Organization’s praise of the UAE’s Wage Protection System (WPS), stating that it is a model to be followed by other countries. The WPS has indeed helped to insure that documented migrant workers get their wages on time in the UAE, although cases of laborers going unpaid are still common.
The editorial goes on to say:
For years, the UAE was unfairly the target of media campaigns in the West with regard to the conditions under which low-skilled labourers work. It is refreshing to see the country receive credit for its efforts to protect the rights of these labourers.
The UAE has been appropriately targeted for the violation of migrant workers’ human rights by the media and human rights groups, including Migrant-Rights.org. The UAE offers little protection to migrant workers, as it ties them to local sponsors making them completely dependent on them for their livelihood and vulnerable to exploitation. The UAE forbids unionizing and strikes, and does not offer migrant workers minimum wage. The UAE doesn’t even bother enforcing its own laws when it comes to passport confiscations and altering of work contracts, which workers are subjected to quite often. Working conditions of construction workers are extremely poor and workers are often exploited. Domestic workers are not included under the realm of the country’s labor laws, they are not given a weekly rest day, their work hours are practically unlimited and they are not paid for overtime.
The editorial ends with this infuriating statement:
As UAE officials have often maintained, what is being done is not something we have had to do, but it is in line with the county’s social and humanitarian values.
The UAE is subjected to pressure from the U.S., sending countries of workers, international labor organization and international and local human rights organizations to improve its protection of migrant workers, which is extremely poor. The UAE is not based on “social and humanitarian values” but on exploitation of slave labor from the Third World. The UAE is a country where expatriates must be deported if they contract an infection disease, blue-collar workers are placed in segregated and overly populated labor camps, and where Emiratis serve one year in jail for burning a Pakistani man to death, while workers get the same sentence for iron scrap theft. The Gulf News’ perception of Emirati exceptionalism is based on anything but facts.
Migrant Rights
The editorial highlighted the International Labor Organization’s praise of the UAE’s Wage Protection System (WPS), stating that it is a model to be followed by other countries. The WPS has indeed helped to insure that documented migrant workers get their wages on time in the UAE, although cases of laborers going unpaid are still common.
The editorial goes on to say:
For years, the UAE was unfairly the target of media campaigns in the West with regard to the conditions under which low-skilled labourers work. It is refreshing to see the country receive credit for its efforts to protect the rights of these labourers.
The UAE has been appropriately targeted for the violation of migrant workers’ human rights by the media and human rights groups, including Migrant-Rights.org. The UAE offers little protection to migrant workers, as it ties them to local sponsors making them completely dependent on them for their livelihood and vulnerable to exploitation. The UAE forbids unionizing and strikes, and does not offer migrant workers minimum wage. The UAE doesn’t even bother enforcing its own laws when it comes to passport confiscations and altering of work contracts, which workers are subjected to quite often. Working conditions of construction workers are extremely poor and workers are often exploited. Domestic workers are not included under the realm of the country’s labor laws, they are not given a weekly rest day, their work hours are practically unlimited and they are not paid for overtime.
The editorial ends with this infuriating statement:
As UAE officials have often maintained, what is being done is not something we have had to do, but it is in line with the county’s social and humanitarian values.
The UAE is subjected to pressure from the U.S., sending countries of workers, international labor organization and international and local human rights organizations to improve its protection of migrant workers, which is extremely poor. The UAE is not based on “social and humanitarian values” but on exploitation of slave labor from the Third World. The UAE is a country where expatriates must be deported if they contract an infection disease, blue-collar workers are placed in segregated and overly populated labor camps, and where Emiratis serve one year in jail for burning a Pakistani man to death, while workers get the same sentence for iron scrap theft. The Gulf News’ perception of Emirati exceptionalism is based on anything but facts.
Migrant Rights
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Rights Group Urges ILO to Bring Out Guidelines for Domestic Workers
Migrants Forum Asia has called on the ILO to set specific guide lines for domestic workers.
The majority of Asia’s 60 million migrant workers are women, and many of them work as housemaids and nannies. MFA believes that existing international conventions do not adequately protect their rights.
“A definitive, coherent, and comprehensive instrument is needed to clearly establish minimum standards and rights for all domestic workers as workers,” Migrants Forum Asia executive committee chair Ellene Sana said in a speech on June 3 to delegates to the ongoing 99th International Labor Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
Sana lamented that domestic work has not been fully and widely recognized as work; domestic workers have not been covered by labor laws that protect and promote their rights, welfare, and dignity.
“Despite the significant contributions of domestic workers to their households and employers’ families, to communities and countries (both of origin and destination), and to the industries and economies in which they selflessly invest their time, skills, sweat and tears, these domestic workers have yet to enjoy the recognition
they have so long deserved,” she said
migrantwatch
The majority of Asia’s 60 million migrant workers are women, and many of them work as housemaids and nannies. MFA believes that existing international conventions do not adequately protect their rights.
“A definitive, coherent, and comprehensive instrument is needed to clearly establish minimum standards and rights for all domestic workers as workers,” Migrants Forum Asia executive committee chair Ellene Sana said in a speech on June 3 to delegates to the ongoing 99th International Labor Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
Sana lamented that domestic work has not been fully and widely recognized as work; domestic workers have not been covered by labor laws that protect and promote their rights, welfare, and dignity.
“Despite the significant contributions of domestic workers to their households and employers’ families, to communities and countries (both of origin and destination), and to the industries and economies in which they selflessly invest their time, skills, sweat and tears, these domestic workers have yet to enjoy the recognition
they have so long deserved,” she said
migrantwatch
Lankan sentenced to Death
Daily Mirror
The Court of Appeal in Dubai has quashed a life term and awarded death to a man convicted for premeditated murder. The Presiding Judge, Eissa Sharif, gave the 24-year-old Sri Lankan resident capital punishment for killing the husband of his lover.
The Court of First Instance had on April 5 pronounced him guilty of killing the victim, also Sri Lankan, and sentenced him to life term, and deportation thereafter. The defendant, who had an affair with the victim's wife, is believed to have planned the murder as the husband was an 'obstacle' to his love life.
He killed the husband on the night of February 26 last year by stabbing him several times in many parts of the body. The deceased's wife was referred to the Court of Misdemeanours on the charge of having illicit sex.
A police lieutenant told the prosecutors that he saw the victim lying in a pool of blood that night in an alley in Raffa. The police quizzed the wife who was still there at the time the cops arrived. "At first, she claimed that an African man had stabbed her husband while they were walking home," the lieutenant said.
But, the woman soon changed her statement and said that the defendant, with whom she had an affair and who worked at the same place as she, had stabbed her husband, the reason being jealousy. The police nabbed the defendant later in the house of a woman compatriot in the Springs community.
A taxi driver, who happened to be at the crime scene that night said during the investigation that while he was on duty picking up and dropping people in Al Jaffiliya area, he saw two men fighting and a woman screaming.
"One of them stabbed the other several times until he fell down. The other man kept on stabbing him in the chest before fleeing the scene," the driver testified.
The Court of Appeal in Dubai has quashed a life term and awarded death to a man convicted for premeditated murder. The Presiding Judge, Eissa Sharif, gave the 24-year-old Sri Lankan resident capital punishment for killing the husband of his lover.
The Court of First Instance had on April 5 pronounced him guilty of killing the victim, also Sri Lankan, and sentenced him to life term, and deportation thereafter. The defendant, who had an affair with the victim's wife, is believed to have planned the murder as the husband was an 'obstacle' to his love life.
He killed the husband on the night of February 26 last year by stabbing him several times in many parts of the body. The deceased's wife was referred to the Court of Misdemeanours on the charge of having illicit sex.
A police lieutenant told the prosecutors that he saw the victim lying in a pool of blood that night in an alley in Raffa. The police quizzed the wife who was still there at the time the cops arrived. "At first, she claimed that an African man had stabbed her husband while they were walking home," the lieutenant said.
But, the woman soon changed her statement and said that the defendant, with whom she had an affair and who worked at the same place as she, had stabbed her husband, the reason being jealousy. The police nabbed the defendant later in the house of a woman compatriot in the Springs community.
A taxi driver, who happened to be at the crime scene that night said during the investigation that while he was on duty picking up and dropping people in Al Jaffiliya area, he saw two men fighting and a woman screaming.
"One of them stabbed the other several times until he fell down. The other man kept on stabbing him in the chest before fleeing the scene," the driver testified.
Rizana's parents appeal
Daiy Mirror
The parents of Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek who is accused of murdering a Saudi newborn in 2005 have appealed to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to take suitable action for their daughter’s release since she has been languishing in jail for the past five years.
The appeal for clemency was handed to Bandar Al-Aiban, president of the governmental Human Rights Commission through a proxy in Riyadh .
Rizana Nafeek’s case is in appeal after she was found guilty and sentenced to death. She claims the baby choked during bottle feeding and that her earlier confession is invalid because it was taken while she was in police custody and had no legal representation.
She said language barrier was another factor at that time that makes the confession invalid. The parents maintain that she murdered the infant in vengeance on the 7th day of her job.
A three-member high court in Dawadmi, near Riyadh, handed down the death sentence on June 16, 2007 and on July 15 the judgment was appealed by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) through the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh.
In the letter, the woman’s parents, Mohammed Rafeek and Farina Nazik, insist their daughter is not a murderer.
An HRC source said the organization would not take any action in a pending court case, but that it has been closely monitoring the situation and it would take necessary action following the final verdict — the date of which is not known and depends on the current proceedings.
The case has been bouncing between courts since it first reached the high court in Riyadh in March 2008. The last hearing of Nafeek’s case took place on Dec. 21. (Arab News)
The parents of Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek who is accused of murdering a Saudi newborn in 2005 have appealed to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to take suitable action for their daughter’s release since she has been languishing in jail for the past five years.
The appeal for clemency was handed to Bandar Al-Aiban, president of the governmental Human Rights Commission through a proxy in Riyadh .
Rizana Nafeek’s case is in appeal after she was found guilty and sentenced to death. She claims the baby choked during bottle feeding and that her earlier confession is invalid because it was taken while she was in police custody and had no legal representation.
She said language barrier was another factor at that time that makes the confession invalid. The parents maintain that she murdered the infant in vengeance on the 7th day of her job.
A three-member high court in Dawadmi, near Riyadh, handed down the death sentence on June 16, 2007 and on July 15 the judgment was appealed by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) through the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh.
In the letter, the woman’s parents, Mohammed Rafeek and Farina Nazik, insist their daughter is not a murderer.
An HRC source said the organization would not take any action in a pending court case, but that it has been closely monitoring the situation and it would take necessary action following the final verdict — the date of which is not known and depends on the current proceedings.
The case has been bouncing between courts since it first reached the high court in Riyadh in March 2008. The last hearing of Nafeek’s case took place on Dec. 21. (Arab News)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
SLBFE special training must for ME bound
SLBFE special training must for ME bound males
The special training given by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) to housemaids seeking employment abroad will be made compulsory to males too seeking employment in the Middle East from July 15 this year, the SLBFE said in a press release yesterday.
However this training would be only confined to Middle East jobs, the release said.
The training given on a concept of SLBFE Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka would include an awareness about the laws and regulations of the host country, its money transactions and social life as well as solutions to workplace problems.
All males learning for Middle East jobs except those seeking higher performance and technical sector jobs should await themselves of this training from July 15, the release said.
The special training given by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) to housemaids seeking employment abroad will be made compulsory to males too seeking employment in the Middle East from July 15 this year, the SLBFE said in a press release yesterday.
However this training would be only confined to Middle East jobs, the release said.
The training given on a concept of SLBFE Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka would include an awareness about the laws and regulations of the host country, its money transactions and social life as well as solutions to workplace problems.
All males learning for Middle East jobs except those seeking higher performance and technical sector jobs should await themselves of this training from July 15, the release said.
Migrant workers to get free vocational training
By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff reporter
Migrant workers here will be able to receive free vocational training from state-designated institutes nationwide. The program is part of government efforts to improve the job skills of foreign workers mostly employed by small-scale labor-intense manufacturing firms.
The Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRDSK) said Tuesday that it will receive applications from migrant workers with E-9 visas and select 5,000 for a state-sponsored job training program starting from June through November this year.
On behalf of HRDSK, 67 job training centers across the country will offer laborers two types of vocational programs ㅡ basic and advanced. Trainees will gain practical skills in the fields of manufacturing, construction, agricultural and fisheries under the basic training scheme, while learning auto repair, welding and other expertise through the advanced program.
``On top of language problems, migrant workers, mostly from Southeast Asian countries, lack necessary job skills and lag far behind Korean employees in labor productivity," HRDSK manager Kim Dong-il said. "To help them improve their productivity and boost the bottom line of the nation's many small businesses, we decided to offer vocational training free of charge.''
He also said the vocational program will help employers retain foreign workers as the latter will help to achieve greater job satisfaction.
Kim said the government has allocated 900 million won for training 5,000 migrant workers over the next five months, adding programs will be offered on Sundays as they usually work from Monday through Saturday. ``Each trainee will take classes for four hours, once a week for three months.''
For Korean employers and migrant workers interested in the state-funded vocational training program, call HRDSK at 02-3271-9443 for more information.
leehs@koreatimes.co.kr
Staff reporter
Migrant workers here will be able to receive free vocational training from state-designated institutes nationwide. The program is part of government efforts to improve the job skills of foreign workers mostly employed by small-scale labor-intense manufacturing firms.
The Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRDSK) said Tuesday that it will receive applications from migrant workers with E-9 visas and select 5,000 for a state-sponsored job training program starting from June through November this year.
On behalf of HRDSK, 67 job training centers across the country will offer laborers two types of vocational programs ㅡ basic and advanced. Trainees will gain practical skills in the fields of manufacturing, construction, agricultural and fisheries under the basic training scheme, while learning auto repair, welding and other expertise through the advanced program.
``On top of language problems, migrant workers, mostly from Southeast Asian countries, lack necessary job skills and lag far behind Korean employees in labor productivity," HRDSK manager Kim Dong-il said. "To help them improve their productivity and boost the bottom line of the nation's many small businesses, we decided to offer vocational training free of charge.''
He also said the vocational program will help employers retain foreign workers as the latter will help to achieve greater job satisfaction.
Kim said the government has allocated 900 million won for training 5,000 migrant workers over the next five months, adding programs will be offered on Sundays as they usually work from Monday through Saturday. ``Each trainee will take classes for four hours, once a week for three months.''
For Korean employers and migrant workers interested in the state-funded vocational training program, call HRDSK at 02-3271-9443 for more information.
leehs@koreatimes.co.kr
Spain's Muslim immigrants well integrated
Study: 84% of polled Muslims said faced no obstacles to practicing their religion in Spain.
MADRID - The vast majority of Muslim immigrants to Spain are well integrated in the country even if 27 percent of them are currently unemployed, according to a government study published Wednesday.
Fully 70 percent said they felt "good or very good" in Spain while 81 percent said they felt they were "well adapted to Spanish life and customs", the investigation carried out by the Metroscopia social studies institute found.
Of the 2,000 Muslim immigrants polled, 84 said they faced no obstacles to practicing their religion in Spain while 94 percent said they opposed the use of any of violence to defend religious beliefs.
The institute has carried out the study for the government each year since 2006 and the most findings did not differ significantly from the results in other years.
Speaking at a news conference to unveil the results of the study, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said "the recession seems to not to have affected the opinions expressed in this annual survey."
Spain plunged into its longest and deepest recession at the end of 2008 as the global credit crisis hastened a correction which was already underway in its key property sector.
The downturn caused Spain's overall unemployment rate to soar to 19 percent in February, nearly twice the 10 percent rate of the entire 16-nation euro zone.
The unemployment rate is higher amongst immigrants as they are primarily employed in areas such as construction and the services sector which have been especially hard hit by the recession.
Spain has around 767,000 Muslim immigrants out of a total population of 46 million people. Most Muslim immigrants are from Morocco.
MADRID - The vast majority of Muslim immigrants to Spain are well integrated in the country even if 27 percent of them are currently unemployed, according to a government study published Wednesday.
Fully 70 percent said they felt "good or very good" in Spain while 81 percent said they felt they were "well adapted to Spanish life and customs", the investigation carried out by the Metroscopia social studies institute found.
Of the 2,000 Muslim immigrants polled, 84 said they faced no obstacles to practicing their religion in Spain while 94 percent said they opposed the use of any of violence to defend religious beliefs.
The institute has carried out the study for the government each year since 2006 and the most findings did not differ significantly from the results in other years.
Speaking at a news conference to unveil the results of the study, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said "the recession seems to not to have affected the opinions expressed in this annual survey."
Spain plunged into its longest and deepest recession at the end of 2008 as the global credit crisis hastened a correction which was already underway in its key property sector.
The downturn caused Spain's overall unemployment rate to soar to 19 percent in February, nearly twice the 10 percent rate of the entire 16-nation euro zone.
The unemployment rate is higher amongst immigrants as they are primarily employed in areas such as construction and the services sector which have been especially hard hit by the recession.
Spain has around 767,000 Muslim immigrants out of a total population of 46 million people. Most Muslim immigrants are from Morocco.
Amnesty, Italy clash over handling of migrants
Human rights group says Italy puts migrants' lives in danger by sending them back to Libya.
ROME - Italy's government and Amnesty International clashed on Thursday over a report by the human rights group saying the country put migrants' lives in danger by sending them back to Libya.
"Italy continued to deport people to places where they were at risk of human rights abuses," Amnesty said in its report on human rights around the world in 2009.
"Italian authorities took the unprecedented decision to transfer migrants and asylum-seekers rescued at sea to Tripoli, Libya," where they are not protected by the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, Amnesty said.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini replied saying the report was "unworthy of the work of the men and women of our police corps, who save lives every day, the complete opposite of what Amnesty is saying."
Amnesty said asylum seekers to Italy dropped to 17,000 in 2009 from 31,000 in 2008.
"The Italian and Maltese governments disagreed over their obligations to carry out rescue operations at sea, leaving migrants stranded for days without water and food and posing a serious risk to their lives," Amnesty said.
In its 2009 report on Italy, the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee warned the return of migrants to Libya was a breach of Rome's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
ROME - Italy's government and Amnesty International clashed on Thursday over a report by the human rights group saying the country put migrants' lives in danger by sending them back to Libya.
"Italy continued to deport people to places where they were at risk of human rights abuses," Amnesty said in its report on human rights around the world in 2009.
"Italian authorities took the unprecedented decision to transfer migrants and asylum-seekers rescued at sea to Tripoli, Libya," where they are not protected by the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, Amnesty said.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini replied saying the report was "unworthy of the work of the men and women of our police corps, who save lives every day, the complete opposite of what Amnesty is saying."
Amnesty said asylum seekers to Italy dropped to 17,000 in 2009 from 31,000 in 2008.
"The Italian and Maltese governments disagreed over their obligations to carry out rescue operations at sea, leaving migrants stranded for days without water and food and posing a serious risk to their lives," Amnesty said.
In its 2009 report on Italy, the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee warned the return of migrants to Libya was a breach of Rome's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
MoI braces to crackdown on illegal immigrants (WAM)
Abu Dhabi -The campaign (Sahem) launched recently by the UAE Interior Ministry to track down violators of the entry and residency law aimed to raise awareness among individuals in the community about the phenomenon and not to hesitate to report violators to competent authorities, said Major General Nasser bin Al Awadhi Al Menhali, acting assistant undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior for Naturalisation, Residency and Ports Affairs.
He warned in statement those who deal with violators and infiltrators, announcing that the labour inspection teams of the Department of Violators Follow UP and Foreigners will continue its work day long to hunt the illegal immigrants to bring them to books.
‘The ministry will not spare any effort to crackdown on those who enter into the country and stay illegally’, Menahli said, calling on Emiratis and expatriates to cooperate with the Sahem campaign to report about infiltrators, violators and areas they reside through Sahem free toll 80080 round the clock.
Menhali noted that the phenomenon could subside in case all community members cooperate with the ministry of Interior.
He referred to the higher leadership instructions to take necessary measures to eliminate the phenomenon or those who conceal or harbour violators.
The entry and residency law punishes those who employ or harbour infiltrators with two month imprisonment and fine of AED100, 000. It punishes firm owner who employs absconding foreigner not on his sponsorship or leaves him to work with another illegally, with AED50, 000.
He warned in statement those who deal with violators and infiltrators, announcing that the labour inspection teams of the Department of Violators Follow UP and Foreigners will continue its work day long to hunt the illegal immigrants to bring them to books.
‘The ministry will not spare any effort to crackdown on those who enter into the country and stay illegally’, Menahli said, calling on Emiratis and expatriates to cooperate with the Sahem campaign to report about infiltrators, violators and areas they reside through Sahem free toll 80080 round the clock.
Menhali noted that the phenomenon could subside in case all community members cooperate with the ministry of Interior.
He referred to the higher leadership instructions to take necessary measures to eliminate the phenomenon or those who conceal or harbour violators.
The entry and residency law punishes those who employ or harbour infiltrators with two month imprisonment and fine of AED100, 000. It punishes firm owner who employs absconding foreigner not on his sponsorship or leaves him to work with another illegally, with AED50, 000.
Missions in KSA to issue e-passports for Filipinos
By Joe Avancena
RIYADH – The Philippine Embassy here and its consulate in Jeddah will start issuing electronic passports (e-passports) for Filipino workers from this month, the embassy announced Monday.
Machine-readable and manual passports will be replaced with the electronic ones as soon as biometric machines are installed in the missions, said the embassy announcement.
E-passports will cost SR240 as against SR200 for machine-readable passports. The replacement of a lost e-passport will cost SR600.
Physical presence of applicants will be necessary for collecting the required data for e-passports, the processing of which has been outsourced to Oberthur Technologies.
E-passport is a highly secure document, which can not be tampered with. It features microchip technology which allows information stored in a chip to be verified with the information displayed on the passport.
In August 2009, the first e-passport embedded with computer recognized biometrics and tamper-proof safety features was delivered by Oberthur Technologies.
More than eight million Filipino workers are employed overseas and need the most advanced travel document, like e-passports. – SG
Saudi gazette
RIYADH – The Philippine Embassy here and its consulate in Jeddah will start issuing electronic passports (e-passports) for Filipino workers from this month, the embassy announced Monday.
Machine-readable and manual passports will be replaced with the electronic ones as soon as biometric machines are installed in the missions, said the embassy announcement.
E-passports will cost SR240 as against SR200 for machine-readable passports. The replacement of a lost e-passport will cost SR600.
Physical presence of applicants will be necessary for collecting the required data for e-passports, the processing of which has been outsourced to Oberthur Technologies.
E-passport is a highly secure document, which can not be tampered with. It features microchip technology which allows information stored in a chip to be verified with the information displayed on the passport.
In August 2009, the first e-passport embedded with computer recognized biometrics and tamper-proof safety features was delivered by Oberthur Technologies.
More than eight million Filipino workers are employed overseas and need the most advanced travel document, like e-passports. – SG
Saudi gazette
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