Over 930 children to get UAE citizenship

Dubai, Apr 10: Saudi Arabia reported 364 new coronavirus cases and three new virus-related deaths, the Ministry of Health announced on Friday.

The total number of confirmed cases in the Kingdom is 3,651, out of which 2,919 are currently active, the ministry added.

Out of the new cases, 90 were recorded in Mecca, 78 in Medina, 69 in Riyadh, and 54 in Jeddah, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the number of fatalities rose to 47, while th number of recoveries reached 685.

The daily number of confirmed cases in Saudi Arabia has not peaked yet, and has been rapidly accelerating.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Health had said earlier this week that four different studies showed that the number of coronavirus cases in the Kingdom could reach between 10,000 to 200,000 within weeks.

The ministry spokesman emphasized the urgent need for citizens and residents to remain at home and maintain social distancing practices to ensure that the virus does not spread further.

Dubai, Jun 9: Dubai's Emirates airline has begun laying off employees to reduce cost and save cash as the carrier looks to rightsize its workforce.

"We at Emirates have been doing everything possible to retain the talented people that make up our workforce for as long as we can. However, given the significant impact that the pandemic has had on our business, we simply cannot sustain excess resources and have to rightsize our workforce in line with our reduced operations. After reviewing all scenarios and options, we deeply regret that we have to let some of our people go," the spokesperson said in the statement.

Citing sources, Reuters and Bloomberg earlier reported that a majority of those being made redundant are cabin crew workers as well as a minority of its engineers and pilots, including those flew the Airbus A380.

"This was a very difficult decision and not one that we took lightly. The company is doing everything possible to protect the workforce wherever we can. Where we are forced to take tough decisions we will treat people with fairness and respect. We will work with impacted employees to provide them with all possible support," said the statement.

The spokesperson, however, didn't disclose how many employees are being made redundant in this latest round of rightsizing the workforce.

Emirates on Sunday confirmed that it extended the period of reduced pay for its staff for another three months till September. It had previously reduced basic wages by 25 to 50 per cent for three months from April, with junior employees exempted.

The airline had employed around 60,000 people at the end of its 2019-20 financial year.

Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, said the announced job cuts at Emirates will likely not be the last given the unprecedented damage that Covid-19 has had not just on air travel, but on the entire aviation industry as a whole.

"Emirates' massive international network means that job reductions were always a last resort option as the company staves off cash burn and expenses at a time when revenues are dried up. While Emirates SkyCargo is enjoying a resurgence in activities, the reality is that this income will never offset the lost money from passenger operations," he added.

"Whilst some salary reduction schemes have prevented bigger job cuts for now, the absence of a cure or medicinal suppressant of Covid-19 means that air travel is unlikely to even reach pre-9/11 levels within 3-5 years, let alone pre-Covid-19 levels in that same time period. For that reason, Emirates' reduction in headcount is necessary to stay competitive, agile and be ready for when air travel can resume with a degree of normalcy that we have been accustomed to for decades," said Ahmad.

Hyderabad, Apr 12: In the backdrop of rising tide of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia on the social media, a company in Dubai sacked an employee from Hyderabad for his hate-filled posts on Facebook.

Bala Krishna Nakka from Hyderabad, who was working as Chief Accountant at Dubai’s Moro Hub Data Solutions Company, was sacked after his Facebook went viral evoking widespread condemnation. The man had posted images on his Facebook page which showed Muslims as suicide bombers wearing bombs in the form of coronavirus cells.

It triggered demands both on Facebook and Twitter for action against him. In a quick response the company announced that the person was being sacked from his job, as the company had zero tolerance towards hate propaganda.

Moro Hub said in a statement: “At Moro, we take a zero tolerance attitude to material that is or may be deemed Islamophoic or hate speech. The tweets that we have been alerted to do not, in any way, reflect Moro’s brand values.”

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in India, a more intense hate propaganda has been unleashed by right wing elements on social media targeting India’s Muslim minority, some of whom are based in Gulf region.

As both the mainstream media, especially Indian TV channels, as well as social media users, have unleashed a campaign linking the spread of virus to a Muslim missionary organisation, the Tableeghi Jamaat, in India, a fresh war of words has broken out on social media.

While some activists have taken up it on themselves to highlight the hate propaganda and draw the attention of employers to such hate mongers, the right wing social media handles have also launched their own counter-offensives against such activists.