New Riyadh crackdown nets over 400 'illegal' expats

August 22, 2014

illegal expats

Riyadh, Aug 22: Police arrested a large number of illegal expatriates in the south of the capital in an early morning raid on Thursday under the direct supervision of Riyadh Gov. Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

According to one eyewitness, operations started immediately after dawn prayers.

He said that more than 400 undocumented expatriates, including women and children living in the Manfouha district south of Batha, were rounded up during operations.

The majority of those arrested are African nationals, according to the witness.

The illegals will be investigated and subject to fines and deportation depending on each case, said police sources.

The Riyadh Police Department carried out the operations in cooperation with other security forces.

The Ministry of Interior had warned illegal expatriates in the Kingdom to legalize their status by Nov. 1, 2013 or leave the country.

Riyadh police also arrested 307 illegal residents, including 13 wanted men, last month in a pre-dawn operation. The combing operations were conducted upon the instructions of Prince Turki.

According to Riyadh police, the 24-hour operation took place in Manfouha, Hai Al-Wazara (Hara) and Batha city center.

“Those arrested were booked for various offenses, such as overstaying their visas, running away from sponsors and looking for employment under the pretext of being on a ‘free visa’,” the official said.

The illegal residents were mostly concentrated on the Al-Frayan Street and Sitteen streets.

The operations, which were led by Maj. Gen. Saud Al-Hilal, cordoned off the areas before the raid to prevent suspects from escaping.

During the raids, 45 vegetable vendors who overstayed their Haj and Umrah visas were also arrested in the Hara and Batha areas.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Dubai, Jul 28: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) (ADCB.AD) is letting go hundreds of employees, sources said, the latest in a round of lay-offs by regional banks as pressure mounts to cut costs amid lower oil prices and the coronavirus crisis.

The UAE’s third-biggest lender is laying off 400 employees, two sources familiar with the matter said, after it had committed to not cutting staff because of the crisis.

In a statement, a spokesman said ADCB had pursued efficiency over the last decade by managing out its lowest underachievers after regular reviews, while ensuring talent was deployed in high-growth areas, such as digital banking.

“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the bank spokesman added.

The sources said the cuts would involve ADCB’s consumer business and several in top management were among those being let go. One source said the bank was looking to close 20 branches.

In March, ADCB had declared, “No employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

UAE banks have been hit by government measures to rein in the spread of the virus, forcing many businesses to shut temporarily.

Last week, Dubai’s largest bank, Emirates NBD, reported a slump of 58% in profits. In June, sources told Reuters the bank started a new round of hundreds of lay-offs.

In May, ADCB reported a fall of 84% in first-quarter net profit as it took impairments of $292 million on debt exposure to troubled hospital operator NMC Health and payments group Finablr.

It was a major lender, with an exposure of about $981 million, to NMC Health, which went into administration this year after months of turmoil following questions over financial reporting.

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KT
June 15,2020

Dubai, Jul 15: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced the launch of a 'New Media Academy in Dubai on Monday - a new institution that will train people on the science of digital media.

Taking to Twitter, Sheikh Mohammed said that new media is a new science that has its own set of special tools and secrets, and that the future cadres of UAE must be at the forefront of it.

"The academy will prepare new experts and managers in the field of communication in government and private institutions, as well as training professional social media influencers", Sheikh Mohammed tweeted, adding that the new media is providing new job opportunities and careers today, and will always be a main supporter in the journey of development.

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Agencies
June 29,2020

Protests condemning the Israeli plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank are set to take place in the United States and Europe on the same day prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to begin the process.

The demonstrations will be held on Wednesday in Chicago, San Diego, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Other Western cities will also witness similar protests, including Toronto, Madrid and Valencia.

Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and American Muslims for Palestine are among the pro-Palestinian groups organizing the protests.

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, one of the organizers, urged "direct actions and popular mobilizations in [Palestinian] refugee camps, cities and villages," and professed "loyalty to the martyrs" on its call for the events.

Another group, Al-Awda or the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition, decried "72 years of genocide, ethnic cleansing and dispossession" of Palestinians.

It also tied their demonstrations to the protests against anti-black racism in the US and beyond.

"We demand the defunding and dismantling of US police alongside the defunding and dismantling of Zionist colonialism and racist Israeli apartheid," Al-Awda said on its website.

Netanyahu has set July 1 as the date for the start of cabinet discussions on the annexation plan.

He has been driven ahead by US President Donald Trump, who unveiled a “peace” plan for the Middle East in January that effectively sidelines the Palestinians altogether.

The plan, which Trump himself has described as the “deal of the century,” envisions Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allows the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley. The plan also denies Palestinian refugees the right of return to their homeland, among other controversial terms.

The Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

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