Dubai: India on Monday started verification and issuance of Emergency Certificates allowing its citizens to leave Saudi Arabia following concerns over a new labour policy in the Gulf Kingdom.
The schedule currently announced is for the delivery of the first batch of 12,000 Emergency Certificate applications received at Indian Embassy in Riyadh and nearly 3,000 in Saudi's Eastern Province.
The schedule for verification and delivery of subsequent batches for all Indian nationals who have applied at other collection centres in Saudi Arabia will be announced soon, the Indian embassy in Riyadh said in a statement.
There has been a rush for the emergency travel documents with about 60,000 applicants looking for one, amid concerns about possible job losses after the new 'Nitaqat' labour law comes into effect....
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03:07 PM, May 20, 2013
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will visit Saudi Arabia on May 24-27, the first visit by an Indian foreign minister in the last five years, during which the kingdom's Nitaqat work policy, regional and international issues would be discussed. Then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee had visited Saudi Arabia in 2008. Khurshid's visit comes days after the trip of a high level Indian delegation, led by Overseas Indian...
11:40 PM, May 14, 2013
Dubai: Saudi Arabia has handed over about 15,000 passports of stranded Indian workers, surrendered by Saudi sponsors, to the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, in a bid to resolve cases of immigration law violations. "Most passports, surrendered by sponsors to the Saudi authorities, belong to stranded Indian workers, including those languishing in jails on huroob (absconding) charges or on charges of violation of Saudi residency laws," said Sibi George, deputy chief...
02:49 AM, May 14, 2013
New Delhi: Over 18,000 Indians have approached the Indian embassy in Riyadh seeking 'emergency certificate' to leave Saudi Arabia amid concerns about possible job losses due to implementation of a new labour law "Nitaqat" that seeks to reserve 10 per cent jobs for locals. The Indian workers have applied for issuance of Emergency Certificate (EC) to leave the country as they had given their passports to the sponsors. Over 18,000...
04:25 PM, May 08, 2013
Thiruvananthapuram: A total of 6,569 Indian nationals are currently lodged in prisons of 67 foreign countries, including 254 in Pakistan, according to information accessed by a Kerala-based RTI activist from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The Arab countries topped the list with Saudi Arabia (1691), Kuwait (1161) and UAE (1012), according to the information provided by the MEA on April 22 to lawyer and RTI activist DB Binu in...
02:49 PM, May 03, 2013
Riyadh: India on Sunday conveyed its concerns to Saudi Arabia over possible job loss to a large number of Indians in the Kingdom due to its new labour law. A delegation led by Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi met Saudi Arabian Labour Minister Adel Fakieh to convey India's concern over the Nitaqat programme. Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed and Advisor to Prime Minister TKA Nair were...
03:35 AM, Apr 29, 2013
Washington: The US has condemned a reported Saudi court ruling sentencing a man to be paralysed for an attack which left another man paralysed as "incredibly disturbing". "If these reports are true, they would be incredibly disturbing," the US State Department said in an email statement on Friday in response to a question asked during its daily press briefing. "We expect the Saudi government to respect international human rights norms....
12:28 PM, Apr 06, 2013
New Delhi: India is holding talks with Saudi Arabia over the kingdom's new work policy Nitaqat, that seeks to reserve a percentage of jobs for locals, an official said in New Delhi on Wednesday. He added that there has not been any significant rise in Indians returning home due to the policy. Indian ministers may also meet Saudi Arabia's labour minister if the situation so requires, the official said. "We...
12:47 AM, Apr 04, 2013
Amid worries that Saudi Arabia's new 'nitaqat' policy, which seeks to reserve 10 per cent jobs for Saudis, would affect thousands of Indian workers in the kingdom, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Monday said there was "no need to panic" and the Indian government was ready to provide any assistance to affected Indian workers. ...
04:15 AM, Apr 02, 2013
Saudi Arabia may try to end anonymity for Twitter users in the country by limiting access to the site to people who register their identification documents, the Arab News daily reported on Saturday. ...
03:32 PM, Mar 30, 2013
India on Friday raised its concern with Saudi Arabia over its policy of reserving 10 per cent jobs for locals, a decision which will hit over 3 lakh low-and semi-skilled workers from India with a sizable number coming from Kerala. ...
01:47 AM, Mar 30, 2013
Thousands of Indian workers are likely to lose their jobs after a workforce nationalisation law came into effect in Saudi Arabia on Friday. The Nitaqat law makes it mandatory for local companies to hire one Saudi national for every 10 migrant workers. ...
12:07 PM, Mar 29, 2013
Saudi Arabia is scheduled to execute seven men on Tuesday for crimes committed when they were juveniles aged under 18, the British-based rights group Amnesty International said. ...
02:47 AM, Mar 05, 2013
Almost two years after his death at the hands of US special forces in Pakistan, a UN Security Council committee has removed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from its sanctions list, although an order freezing any assets of the Islamist extremist remains in place. ...
05:22 AM, Feb 26, 2013
Online activists in Saudi Arabia are calling for harsher punishments for child abuse after reports that a prominent cleric received only a light sentence after confessing to the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter. ...
03:04 PM, Feb 05, 2013
Online activists in Saudi Arabia are calling for harsher punishments for child abuse after reports that a prominent cleric received only a light sentence after confessing to the beating death of his five-year-old daughter. ...
11:40 PM, Feb 03, 2013
A Saudi Air Force sergeant in the United States for training has been arrested on child sexual assault charges over accusations he raped a 13-year-old boy in a Las Vegas hotel, and bail was set on Friday at just over $1.2 million, authorities said. Mazen Alotaibi is accused of raping the boy on New Year's evening at the Circus Circus hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, where both Alotaibi and...
08:40 PM, Jan 19, 2013
Saudi Arabia have sacked Frank Rijkaard as coach of the national soccer team after 18 months in charge, the country's football federation has announced. ...
12:58 PM, Jan 17, 2013
A 90-year-old Saudi man's marriage to a 15-year-old girl in exchange for a fat dowry has sparked widespread condemnation from human rights and social media activists in the kingdom. ...
06:37 PM, Jan 07, 2013
A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison for insulting the country's ruler on Twitter, a lawyer following the case said, as the Gulf Arab state cracks down on criticism of the authorities on social media. ...
10:50 PM, Jan 06, 2013
