Saudi: Nitaqat deadline extension call backed by Jeddah businesses

June 20, 2013

Jeddah, Jun 20: A call for extension of the July 3 amnesty deadline got the backing of businesspeople yesterday during their meeting with Labor Ministry officials.

Muhammad Al-Subhi, a businessman, said that the mechanisms used for normalization are incorrect and disorganized. “The mechanisms were only announced six weeks after the start of the grace period. We therefore ask that the period be extended."

The meeting took place at the ministry's offices.

Madawi Al-Hassoun, a businesswoman, said something should be done to help the dependents of expatriates born in the Kingdom and those living here legally but who are barred from working.

"About 80 percent of those who work in various professions belong to this category and have high qualifications and extensive expertise. This category is worthy of more attention, especially since Saudi Arabia is the only country they have ever known," she said.

She also criticized the use of some words by the ministry, such as "raided" which, she said, is inappropriately used against the public or the relevant parties. “This is a word more fit to be used in connection with drug traffickers or terrorist groups."

Meanwhile, at the meeting Abdulmunim Al-Shehri, director general of the labor office, repeated certain parts of the concessions announced by the government. He said workers have the right to transfer their sponsorship if their sponsors withhold their passports and residence permits.

"The amnesty is meant for certain categories of expats, like those who were reported to have run away, who absented themselves from work, violators among domestics, or those who overstayed in the Kingdom after performing Haj or Umrah," he said.

Asked if some nationalities from Chad or Bangladesh, for example, are exempted from rectifying their status, he said "this grace period is for all nationalities to correct any abnormalities in their status in general. But they must do so by the deadline."

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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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