Illegal expats grope in the dark

November 8, 2013

Illegal_expats

Jeddah, Nov 8: Jeddah residents have called on the government to move hundreds of illegals from under a bridge at the intersection of Palestine and Prince Majed streets.

About 400 workers have been squatting at the location for days waiting for buses to transport them to the Shumaisi deportation center. Many were sitting on the ground, outside restaurants and moving in-between the traffic.

There had initially been many more expatriates, mainly Indonesians, under the bridge when the amnesty ended on Nov. 3. They had been told by their consulates to wait there for transport, and were later taken in buses to the deportation center.

There are now mostly workers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia and Ethiopia under the bridge.

Local residents and owners of shops and restaurants have complained that the workers are causing problems in the area. The constant noise late into the night disturbs them, they said.

Saleh, a Saudi resident, said he has great difficulty reaching his home in the afternoon because of the heavy traffic and many cars parked in the area. He said the workers have littered the area.

“I suggest another place be found for workers to wait.” He said the deportation and foreign affairs officials should work together to ensure the workers are taken to the center for processing.

Some of the stranded workers told Arab News that they had been waiting for two days for buses to take them to the deportation center.

Arshad, a Pakistani worker, said that he came to the bridge with compatriots because they were told there would be transport for them.

Saeed, an illegal worker from Somalia, said he had been waiting for almost 12 hours and had not found anyone able to give him more information. “We want to leave this country because we could not correct our status. It is hard for us here because we have to sleep on the ground and there are no basic facilities.”

Zafar, another Pakistani, said he had been waiting for two days and wished he had never come. He said most of the workers wanted their embassies and consulates to organize their deportation procedures.

“We are suffering a lot here especially during the hot midday hours. Some of us came here with families and children. What's making things worse is that no one has been able to tell us how long we'd have to wait.

“Today around six to seven buses came early in the morning and took some workers to the deportation center,” he said.

There was a large contingent of policemen stationed around the area to provide security on Thursday.

Arab News tried to get a statement from the head of the police officers there, but he refused because he was not authorized to do so.

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News Network
January 8,2020

Dubai, Jan 8: A Ukrainian airliner crashed soon after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on Wednesday, killing all 176 people aboard, Iran's state television and Ukraine's leaders said.

The Boeing 737 belonging to Ukraine International Airlines crashed near the airport and burst into flames. Ukraine's embassy in Iran, citing preliminary information, said the plane had suffered engine failure and the crash was not caused by "terrorism".

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there were no survivors.

"My sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of all passengers and crew," Zelenskiy said in a statement, adding that Ukraine was seeking to establish the circumstances of the crash and the death toll.

Iranian TV said the crash was due to technical problems but did not elaborate. State broadcaster IRIB said on its website that one of the plane's two black boxes - the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder - had been found.

Iranian media quoted an Iranian aviation official as saying the pilot of the airliner did not declare an emergency.

There was no official word from Ukraine International Airlines. It was the Kiev-based airline's first fatal crash.

"The fire is so heavy that we cannot (do) any rescue... we have 22 ambulances, four bus ambulances and a helicopter at the site," Pirhossein Koulivand, head of Iran's emergency services, told Iranian state television.

Ukraine's prime minister and Iranian state TV said 167 passengers and 9 crew were on board. Iranian TV said 32 of those on board were foreigners.

Television footage showed debris and smouldering engine parts strewn across a field, and rescue workers with face masks retrieving bodies of the victims.

According to air tracking service FlightRadar24, the plane that crashed was Flight PS 752 and was flying to Kiev. The plane was three years old and was a Boeing 737-800NG, it said.

The model's twin engines are made by CFM International, a U.S.-French venture co-owned by General Electric and France's Safran.

Modern aircraft are designed and certified to cope with an engine failure shortly after take-off and to fly for extended periods on one engine. However, an uncontained engine failure releasing shrapnel can cause damage to other aircraft systems.

A spokesman for Boeing said the company was aware of media reports of a plane crash in Iran and was gathering more information. The plane manufacturer grounded its 737 MAX fleet in March after two crashes that killed 346 people.

The 737-800 is one of the world's most-flown models with a good safety record and which does not have the software feature implicated in crashes of the 737 MAX.

Under international rules overseen by the United Nations, Iran is responsible for leading the crash investigation.

Ukraine would be involved and the United States would usually be accredited as the country where the Boeing jet was designed and built. France, where the engine maker CFM has half its activities, may also be involved.

There was no immediate word on whether the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board would be involved in the probe amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran. The NTSB usually invites Boeing to give technical advice in such investigations.

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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
February 5,2020

Paris, Feb 5: Saudi Arabia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus on a poultry farm, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Tuesday, February 4.

The outbreak, which occurred in the central Sudair region, killed 22,700 birds, the OIE said, citing a report from the Saudi agriculture ministry.

The other 385,300 birds in the flock were slaughtered, it said.

The case was the first outbreak of the H5N8 virus in Saudi Arabia since July 2018.

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