More Saudization to yield more work visas

June 9, 2014

Jeddah, Jun 9: The Labor Ministry announced Sunday that it would allow firms in the high and medium green categories of Nitaqat to recruit foreign workers required for the expansion of their business activities.

However, the same privilege will not be available for companies in the lower green, yellow and red categories. “We have clearly mentioned the categories of companies that would benefit from this service,” said Labor Minister Adel Fakeih.

He said companies would be given visas as per their requirements and in line with recruitment conditions, but their status should not decline to lower green as a result of the new recruitment, he said on his Twitter account.

Ziyad Al-Bassam, vice chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), said the decision would have limited impact on the labor market as it addresses only those companies that have fulfilled Saudization conditions.

“The real estate sector will be the major beneficiary of this decision,” Al-Bassam told Arab News. It will also benefit tourism companies that have entered the higher green category, he added.

Abdullah Marae Binmahfouz, a member of the JCCI board, said he had requested the minister to allow companies in the lower green and yellow categories to benefit from the service to help them expand their activities. “This is a positive step,” he said while urging the ministry to ease recruitment procedures to boost the market as well as the economy.

“We have made remarkable headway in Saudization, which is a continuing process and will not be limited to a specific time,” he explained.

Abdullah Al-Sharief, an HR expert, said the decision would benefit only a few companies.

He urged the ministry and labor offices to speed up recruitment procedures to meet manpower requirements of various projects.

He also requested the minister to allow sectors such as handicrafts, where Saudization was not successful in the past, to recruit foreign workers.

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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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