Expat IDs to be sent by post from Aug. 16

June 21, 2015

Riyadh, Jun 21: The Passport Department has announced that companies and individuals would no longer need to visit its offices from Aug. 16 because services would be available online and identity cards for expatriate workers would be sent through Saudi Post, a media report has said.

Col. Khaled Al-Saikhan, assistant director of passports for technical affairs, said the new identity card for expatriates, to be issued from Oct. 14, or the start of the new Islamic year, would have a physical lifespan of five years or more depending on how it is looked after.

It would contain the person’s name, number, date of birth, occupation, work eligibility, nationality, work permit number (if any), religion and employer. The card is renewable electronically via Abshir or Muqeem online services by the employer annually.

Al-Saikhan said the main changes are that the new card would no longer be called an iqama but Resident Identity Card. The card itself does not expire, but its validity is based on the rules and regulations of the Ministry of Interior.

With the introduction of the Resident Identity Card, Al-Saikhan said security officers working in the field would be able to access information on a resident electronically and more efficiently.

As for visa regulations, Al-Saikhan said expatriate workers with exit and re-entry visas who do not return to the Kingdom before the visa expires, would not be allowed to enter for a minimum period of three years.

Workers who want to return can only do so after the three-year period, he said.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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