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Burmese refugees to receive job training in Saudi Arabia

March 25, 2013

Burmese_refugees

Jeddah, Mar 25: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal yesterday distributed free residency permits (iqamas) to the first applicants of the Burmese community in a historic move to legalize the status of nearly 500,000 refugees in the Kingdom.

“This is one of the beautiful moments in my life,” said Prince Khaled while addressing a ceremony at Kudai near Makkah. He thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for issuing his instructions to correct the residency status of a huge group of expatriates who have been living in the Kingdom for several years.

“It was one of the first proposals I presented to King Abdullah after becoming the governor of Makkah,” Prince Khaled said to the applause of the large gathering including OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Burmese community leaders. “King Abdullah ordered the formation of a ministerial committee for the development of disorganized residential districts in Makkah to improve the situation of Burmese Muslims living in those districts,” he said.

“This is one of the unique experiments in the world,” the governor said, adding that the Kingdom has taken drastic measures to tackle the problem. “We are not just building new homes to develop these districts. We also rehabilitate some 400,000 to 500,000 people living there,” he pointed out.

Prince Khaled said the government would provide Burmese community members with health care, social services, education and develop their residential areas as part of a comprehensive program. “We’ll also train them to get jobs,” he pointed out.

Under the Labor Ministry’s Nitaqat (naturalization) program, the employment of four Burmese is equal to one foreigner. This incentive was given to encourage private companies to employ more Burmese to meet their labor requirements. “You cannot see such a comprehensive rehabilitation program anywhere in the world,” the governor said.

“This is an unprecedented incident in the world,” said Mohammed Tayeb, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s office in the Makkah region, while commending the government’s efforts to issue four-year iqamas to Burmese citizens free of charge and provide them with educational, health and social services.

Mohammed Rauf Rafi, secretary-general of European Rohingya Council in the Kingdom, said there are about 350,000 Burmese Muslims in Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah. Saudi authorities intend to issue iqamas to all Burmese within four to six months. He disclosed plans to open a media center for the Rohingyas at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

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News Network
March 26,2020

Riyadh, Mar 26: Leaders of the Group of 20 nations will hold a summit today via video conference to discuss measures to protect the global economy, amid coronavirus pandemic which has claimed over 18,000 lives globally.
The summit, which will be chaired by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, aims to "advance a coordinated global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its human and economic implications," according to the statement published by the G20 Secretariat on Tuesday.
The lethal virus which was first detected in December last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has since, infected over 4,14,179 people around the world.
The coronavirus has already resulted in major disruption of global supply chains, volatility and large drops in the stock market and could cause a financial crisis as stated by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
India is a member nation of the G20 group.
Speaking on the summit on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Group of 20 (G20) has an important role to play in the fight against coronavirus.
He said: "The G20 has an important global role to play in addressing the #COVID19 pandemic. I look forward to productive discussions tomorrow at the G20 Virtual Summit, being coordinated by the Saudi G20 Presidency."
The other members include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, the US, and the European Union.
In view of the coronavirus outbreak situation, several international organisations -- including the United Nations, World Bank, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization will take part.
Leaders from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Financial Stability Board, the International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- will also be the part of the conference.

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Agencies
July 31,2020

Makkah, Jul 31: Organising this year's scaled-down hajj required "double efforts" by Saudi authorities amid the coronavirus pandemic, King Salman said Friday after being discharged from hospital following gall bladder surgery.

Only up to 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom are participating in this year's pilgrimage, compared with 2019's gathering of some 2.5 million from around the world.

"Holding the ritual in the shadow of this pandemic... required reducing the numbers of pilgrims, but it obliged various official agencies to put in double efforts," 84-year-old King Salman said in a speech read out on state television by acting media minister Majid Al-Qasabi.

"The hajj this year was restricted to a very limited number of people from multiple nationalities, ensuring the ritual was completed despite the difficult circumstances," he said.

The speech came on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice, a day after the king left hospital following a 10-day stay for surgery to remove his gall bladder.

The hajj, which began on Wednesday, is one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime.

Authorities implemented the "highest health precautions" during the rituals, the king said.

Pilgrims, who were all tested for the virus, are required to wear masks and observe social distancing.

For Friday's "stoning of the devil", the last major ritual of the hajj, Saudi authorities offered the pilgrims pebbles that were sanitised to protect against the pandemic.

In a sign that its strict measures were working, the health ministry reported no coronavirus cases in the holy sites on Wednesday or Thursday.

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Agencies
June 5,2020

Dubai, Jun 5: A new set of coronavirus guidelines for UAE hotels has been published by the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority.

The guidelines, released late Thursday, require all employees to be tested for Covid-19 before reopening, and to be re-tested every 15 days.

Hotels are expected to provide an infrared thermometer and thermal camera, with employee temperatures to be tested several times per working day.

Any guest or employee showing coronavirus symptoms will not be permitted to enter hotel facilities, the guidelines stress.

Hotels must also leave a 24-hour gap between guests leaving a room, and the next guests arriving.

Facilities such as restaurants, cafes, gyms, swimming pools and beaches in hotels will resume operation under a minimum capacity.

Customers must have their temperatures taken before they enter.

The working hours of restaurants and cafes will be from 6am until 9pm, allowing four people to sit at the same table with 2.5 metres left between tables. Menus must be sterilised after each use.

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