Don't bring restricted medicines to UAE, Indian workers told

Khaleej times
December 21, 2017

Dubai, Dec 21: Indian missions in the UAE have urged blue-collared workers to completely refrain from bringing medicines that are restricted in the UAE. Often Indian workers are detained for possession of illegal drugs, especially sleeping pills or painkillers, which don't have a prescription that has been attested by the UAE Embassy in India.

Speaking to a gathering of 400 workers, Indian Ambassador to the UAE Navdeep Singh Suri urged them to take care of their health, keep their personal documents safe and register themselves on the e-migrate system, which would safeguard them from fraudulent visa agents.

He was speaking at the Petron Workers Accommodation in Dubai Investment Park on Tuesday. The event was organised by Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC) and was also attended by officials from the Indian Consulate and social workers.

"The Indian missions have the best interests of all Indian nationals in the UAE, we are here in the service of all Indians," the ambassador said. Suri also stressed that the Indian passport is a very valuable document, and they must keep it close at all times. Indian diplomatic missions visit various workers camps in the UAE every 10-15 days, according to Suri, where issues of labourers are addressed.

He also urged them to save the IWRC hotline number 800INDIA (80046342) on their phones and not avail visa services from unauthorised agents.

Restricted medicines

Social workers and IWRC volunteers stressed that the workers should cross-check the list of medicines that have restricted entry into the UAE on the Indian Consulate and Embassy websites.

Anish Choudhary, manager of IWRC, said: "Workers need to be educated about the risks of bringing medicines into the UAE. Often, labourers accept sealed boxes and packages from unscrupulous agents or unknowing family members. They must practise due diligence while accepting packages."

In an earlier interview with Khaleej Times, Consul-General of India to Dubai Vipul confirmed that as of mid-2017, there were 90 Indian nationals in Al Aweer Central Jail for drug-related cases. "We keep getting cases wherein Indians who come here get caught at the airport with restricted medicines," he said.

The UAE has a very strict, zero-tolerance anti-drugs policy and conducts thorough searches at airports using the highly sensitive equipment.

Vipul added: "It is very difficult to ascertain an exact number, as local authorities don't distinguish between drugs and medical cases. Furthermore, it is not just workers who have been detained; people in all segments of the society have been arrested for possession of illegal medicines, especially tramadol." A synthetic opioid painkiller, tramadol was among nearly 400 drugs the UAE banned in 2010 for their addictive nature.

Anish stated that men need to always take care of their luggage in airports and not accept bags and packets from unknown people. In case they want to bring medicines, they must get their prescription attested by the UAE Embassy in India. As part of the awareness drive, Anish also spoke to the workers about phone scams, financial scams, health and welfare and identity theft.

Kusum Dutta, a social worker at the event, said: "People who bring restrictive medicines are not aware that it is illegal, and could get them into legal trouble. They must especially refrain from carrying painkillers and sleeping pills."

Meanwhile, A Vidyarthy, manager of Petron Emirates Contracting and Manufacturing Co. LLC, said: "Our ambassador has explained several things to the labourers. Especially made them aware of their basic rights and encouraged them to come forward to discuss their problems."

Sumathi Vasudev, consul (consular and labour affairs), said: "We organise these awareness camps on a regular basis and our main intention is to raise awareness and inform workers that they can approach us, especially through the IWRC hotline and the app Madad (http://www.madad.gov.in/)."

Prescription drugs advisory

> A doctor's prescription should be carried along with any medication that is brought into the country. It is not permitted to bring more than three month's supplies of medicine, as per guidelines of the health ministry.

> Do also keep in mind that medicines can be carried in your checked in luggage, but if one needs medicines during the flight, they can be placed in the hand luggage, provided one has documentary evidence.

> The health and concerned entities in the country place the drug safety as a top priority and take a series of precautionary measures regarding any involvement in this type of crimes.

> The UAE health authorities also follow the warning circular updates issued by the world health agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency.

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News Network
April 23,2024

gaza200.jpg

The genocidal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has entered its 200th day, with occupation forces killing more Palestinians in defiance of widespread international outcry to end the carnage.

The aggression marked its 200th day on Tuesday with no end in sight to the Israeli war that has so far killed a shocking number of Palestinians and led to a humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces have committed three "massacres" over the past 24 hours, killing at least 32 Palestinians and wounding 59 others.

The numbers, it added, bring the Palestinian death toll to more than 34,183, with at least 77,143 injured and an estimated 7,000 missing and presumed dead since early October.

More than 14,500 children and 9,500 women are among those killed, making up over 70 percent of the victims, according to health officials.

Israel waged its brutal US-backed war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Israel has been carrying out war crimes in Gaza by deliberately starving people and forcing their evacuation, as well as targeting hospitals and schools sheltering displaced Palestinians.

Despite all these atrocities, the regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives of “destroying Hamas” and finding Israeli captives held in Gaza.

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News Network
April 30,2024

Gazarubble.jpg

Gaza civil defense agency has warned of a looming health disaster in the besieged Strip as the decomposition of dead bodies under the rubble of buildings destroyed by the relentless Israeli bombings accelerates.

The agency pointed on Tuesday to the risk of diseases and epidemics associated with the public decomposition of thousands of bodies due to rising temperature.

“The continued accumulation of thousands of bodies under the rubble has begun to cause the spread of disease and epidemics, especially with the onset of summer and the rise in temperatures, which accelerates the process of decomposition,” it said in a statement.

Seven months into the war, the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned earlier that the decomposition of dead bodies for long periods leads to the transmission of serious diseases, including blood-borne viruses and tuberculosis.

"Gastrointestinal infections like cholera can also be easily spread through direct contact with dead bodies leaking excrement, soiled clothing, or contaminated tools or vehicles," it added.

In another report last week, Euro-Med Monitor also warned that thousands of corpses left in the streets or beneath house debris are rotting and being consumed by cats and dogs, which is an additional factor contributing to the spread of infectious diseases.

"The spread threatens the environment and public health in the Strip, and health authorities in the Strip have detected about one million cases of infectious diseases," the report added.

The Global Nutrition Group also estimates that at least 90 percent of the Gaza Strip’s children under the age of five are affected by one or more infectious diseases and that 70 percent have had diarrhea in the past two weeks—a 23-fold increase compared with the 2022 baseline.

Unexpected blistering temperatures across Gaza have also added to the daily misery faced by the enclave’s people and sparked new fears of disease outbreaks amid a lack of sufficient clean water and waste disposal, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, also known as UNRWA said on Thursday.

This comes as the death toll from Israel's genocidal campaign against Gaza rose to 34,535. Among the dead are more than 14,500 children and 9,500 women.

Since the war began on October 7, nearly 85 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced.

Vast swathes of the besieged territory are in ruins as Israel continues its onslaught, dropping at least 75,000 tons of explosives on Gaza, according to the Gaza Media Office.

Earlier this month, UNRWA, said 62 percent of all houses in the besieged territory have been damaged or destroyed.

Gaza Media Office recently reported that nearly 90,000 housing units have been destroyed while nearly 300,000 units have been damaged by the Israeli air and ground offensive.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Monday that nearly 37.5 million tons of conflict-generated debris are estimated to be present throughout Gaza, based on assessments by UN bodies.

The world’s hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), said in a report published on March 18 that about 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza are living through catastrophic food insecurity, warning that famine is likely to strike by May in northern Gaza and can spread across the territory by July.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a report published in late March that there were clear indications that Israel has violated three of the five acts listed under the UN Genocide Convention.

These acts Albanese said were “killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to the group’s members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

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News Network
April 23,2024

gazadestruction.jpg

The genocidal war on Gaza launched by Israel on October 7 last year, with the support of the US and its other Western allies, completes 200 days on Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of death, destruction, displacement and starvation.

These 200 days – between October 7, 2023, and April 23, 2024 – have been marked by unprecedented crimes against the people of Gaza, especially children and women, the bombardment of hospitals and schools, abuse and torture of women and abduction of young boys.

Human rights groups and international bodies have described the harrowing events unfolding in the besieged Palestinian territory as a textbook case of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Israeli regime’s key international allies – Washington, London, Paris and Berlin – have also been at the receiving end of massive public backlash for their continued military support for the regime.

The death toll in the apartheid regime’s genocidal campaign has already topped 34,150 since October 7, more than 75 percent of them being women and children, according to the Gaza government office.

The 2.3 million people in the besieged territory continue to deal with a catastrophic humanitarian crisis amid relentless bombings and crippling siege imposed by the Israeli regime with the backing of the US.

Following are the statistics related to 200 days of war waged by the Israeli occupation on Gaza. 

200 – the number of days of the latest Israeli genocidal war on Gaza

41,183 – the total number of those killed and missing in Gaza since Oct. 7

34,183 – the total number of fatalities in Gaza since Oct. 7 (confirmed dead)

7,000 – the number of people still under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza (presumed dead)

77,183 – the number of wounded persons in Gaza since Oct. 7

3,025 – the number of massacres committed by the regime since Oct. 7

14,778 – the number of children killed since Oct. 7

30 – the number of children who died due to starvation and famine

9,752 – the number of women killed since Oct. 7

485 – the number of doctors and paramedics killed since Oct. 7

67 – the number of civil defense personnel killed since Oct. 7

140 – the number of Palestinian journalists killed since Oct. 7

72 – the percentage of children and women killed since Oct. 7

17,000 – the number of children who have lost one or both parents since Oct. 7

11,000 – the number of injured people who need to travel for treatment

10,000 – the number of cancer patients who face the risk of death

1,090,000 – the number of people with infectious diseases due to displacement

8,000 – the number of cases of viral hepatitis due to displacement

60,000 – the number of pregnant women at risk due to lack of healthcare

350,000 – the number of chronically ill patients suffering due to lack of medicine

5,000 – the number of people arbitrarily detained in Gaza since Oct. 7

310 – the number of health practitioners who have been arrested

20 – the number of known journalists arbitrarily detained since Oct. 7

2 million – the number of displaced people in the Gaza Strip

181 – the number of government buildings destroyed since Oct. 7

103 – the number of schools and universities completely destroyed since Oct. 7

317 – the number of schools and universities partially destroyed by the occupation

239 – the number of mosques completely destroyed since Oct. 7

317 – the number of mosques partially destroyed since Oct. 7

3 – the number of churches targeted and destroyed since Oct. 7

86,000 – the number of housing units completely destroyed since Oct. 7

294,000 – the number of housing units partially destroyed since Oct. 7

75,000 – tons of explosives dropped by the occupation on Gaza since Oct. 7

32 – the number of hospitals taken out of service by the occupation since Oct. 7

53 – the number of health centers that have become non-functional since Oct. 7

160 – the number of health institutions partially or fully destroyed since Oct. 7

126 – the number of ambulances destroyed by the occupation army since Oct. 7

206 – the number of archaeological and heritage sites destroyed since Oct. 7

$30 – billions in preliminary direct losses as a result of the genocidal war on Gaza

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