Another 150 Pakistanis reported trapped in Saudi's Al Jubail
Overseas Pakistanis minister has applied for visa to depart for Saudi Arabia
Al JUBAIL (Dunya News) – Around 150 Pakistanis have been revealed to be trapped in industrial city of Saudi Arabia, Al Jubail besides 240 in Dammam and others in Jeddah, reported Friday.
Embassy officials in Riyadh came in action after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took notice of their negligent behavior.
The premier ordered federal minister for Overseas Pakistanis & Human Resource Development, Pir Syed Sadaruddin Shah Rashidi to fly to Riyadh and monitor the situation. The latest development in the case is that Rashidi has applied for visa to depart for Saudi Arabia.
According to the details, 150 Pakistanis who are trapped in Al Jubail used to work for a company which is liable to pay them their pending salaries for past eight months. Their iqamas expired around a year ago and they have been fighting legal cases for seven months.
The victimized Pakistani nationals said that they don’t have anything to eat at homes and police catch them if they step outside.
On the other hand, there are around 240 citizens trapped in Dammam who were given directives about by the premier to the embassy earlier but nothing was done on the ground.
The stranded nationals had complained that the embassy brought them two bags of rice and tomatoes weighing one kilogram each and some packaged food which in no way could be enough for 240 of them.
Prime Minister took notice of the negligence on Dunya News report and ordered the federal minister to fly down there while Ministry of Foreign Affairs now presents a report of the progress on daily basis.
Foreign Office’s spokesperson, Nafees Zakaria, during a weekly briefing said that the relief activities done by the embassy are not supposed to cater to media but to the people on ground which was the case.
Hundreds of workers who are Pakistani citizens are trapped in different cities of Saudi Arabia due to financial hang-ups of their different employers and expiration of their iqamas.
The ministry concerned has vowed to pursue the necessary process and bring those home who wish to while find others new employers.
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