Labor raids ensue in Jeddah

January 10, 2014

Jeddah, Jan 10: Inspection teams from the Labor Ministry have been actively conducting raids on retail market areas in Jeddah to check the status of employees who are working inside shops located in popular market areas.

In a surprise field visit on Thursday, inspection teams carried out ad hoc inspections in a popular mobile phone market located on Palestine Street in Jeddah. Arab News was present on site when the raids occurred.

Some inspectors entered the shops, while others walked around and only revealed their identity when asking expats to show their iqama. A few shops were apparently shut down.

Many expat workers have changed their profession in Labor Ministry records, but have not updated their professions on their iqamas.

The status of many workers was verified by Labor Ministry officials with smart application devices.

Authorities have declared a zero-tolerance approach toward expats working in professions different to those stated on their residency permits.

Many expats working in shops have successfully transferred their sponsorships but have failed to rectify their professional status, officials revealed.

Abdulmohsin Al-Garni, head of the inspection team at the Labor Ministry, told Arab News on Thursday that inspections teams are focusing on specific locations following a series of identification studies.

“We have checked about 200 shops and found that most of the employees working within are under the same sponsor but have failed to change their profession on their iqama.”

Hussain Al-Ghamdi, another official from the Labor Ministry in the Makkah province, said that, “Custodian of Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has given enough time for expats to rectify their status. Those who have failed to do so will incur penalties. The fact that the Makkah province tops employment violations in the Kingdom is worrying,” he said.

“We have been deploying more field inspections teams in recent weeks to ensure compliance with the rules,” 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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