Bad
Dreams: Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia
Report, July 15, 2004
P.T. Shamsudeen: “Your son asked me to tell you that he was executed today.”
More
Reports Kerala
Workers Abuse
Gulf Monitor Special Report Human Rights Abuse in Saudi Arabia: Indian Workers Main Targets (click sword)
Vulnerability and Exploitation
Bomb Hoax Disrupts Standard Chartered Bur Dubai head Office for 3- Hours
By V.M.Sathish
DUBAI - July 15, 2004 A bomb hoax has created temporary panic and confusion at the UAE headquarters of Standard Chartered bank, one of the leading western multinational banks with operations in different Middle Eastern countries. The three hour security alert which started from 8.30 am ended at 11.30 as the bank security could not locate any dangerous explosives in the building premises. According to an official spokesman of Standard Chartered Bank Bur Dubai office, there was a bomb hoax about half an hour after the bank opened its door for business. "All the customers and bank employees were evacuated through the rear entrance as the security left the front door main entrance open for possible use by the fire squad and security," said an official. However, the bank and other offices working from the multistory building resumed normal work at 11.30. Bank customers could not conduct any transactions till 11.30 as the authenticity of bomb scare was verified. Some sources said the anonymous call which came from an Asian country was a false message intended to create panic.
"The Security team of Standard Chartered Bank determined in consultation with the Dubai police to evacuate nearly 500 employees of the Dubai Head office," an official told the City Times. "The security made a thorough check up and found out that there was nothing of serious concern," said Niall Meloughlin, head of corporate communications, Standchart Dubai. The bank with mainly western expatriate and local staff resumed normal functioning at around 11.30 am and the management did not want to spread the wrong message to create panic among other bank employees and customers. The chief security officer did not respond to calls to verify the search results from the building. The whole operation was done smartly that many residents in the neighbouring buildings did not know details about the hoax.
Brigadier Khames Mattar Mozanina is quoted by the Gulf News as saying that bomb squad was sent immediately to help in the evacuation and search of the building. The four hour search aided with bomb detection equipment did not yield any result. A Dubai Police official ruled out any serious problem or bomb threat in the bank street area and attributed the "problem" could be triggered by some jokes or false phone calls that caused the panic. A senior police official of Bur Dubai official said he was fully aware of the security situation which is strictly under control. "There was no problem in the bank functioning. The police did not issue any statement about the incident. Another theory is that the false alarm was raised by an ex employee of the bank, but observers don't rule out the seriousness of the threat to a western bank. Most of the companies operating from the building are also western origin. Despite strong anti western feeling in the Arab world, Dubai has been unaffected by terrorism that plagues normal life in the neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
"There was a bomb hoax and we were all evacuated from the building. However, we came back to work after 11.30 a m and it seems there was no bomb," said an expatriate employee of the bank. One of the customers who maintain an account with the bank for two years said he heard about the hoax but he came to conduct business after the problem was solved. "There was a bomb hoax and like all other employees working in the building, we were also evacuated. Now we came back to resumed duty," said Yasmin, an employee of Kraft Foods Pvt Ltd, a company which has office in the Standard Chartered building. Apart from the leading multinational bank, companies like Philiph Morris Services, Scion International LLC, Misyco International Banking Services and Health Lambart UAE LLC, Kraft Food, Key and Dixon Legal Consultants, Adani Global FZE etc operate from the multistoried land mark building. "When I came to work, the building was already evacuated. Then we stayed outside till the security allowed employees to return," said another bank employee. Police cordoned off the area surrounding the bank and blocked traffic from either side of the building on Mankhool Road.
Dubai is the administrative hub of the bank's Middle East and South Asia Region. In its 43rd year, the Bank enjoys the position of having the most extensive branch network among foreign international banks in UAE with eight emirate-wide. The bank occupies the ground floor, first, second and third floors of the building. The fourth floor has other company offices. The rear portion of the building's ground floor is used for ATM machines, lobby teller services, auto loan, mail room. Following a safety alarm the safety fire break of the fire fighting system was broken and it is being removed.(keralamonitor.com Dubai ) Home
National Bank of Oman Gets Keralite Chief Executive Officer
Mr Vasanthan joined National Bank of Oman as its Chief Executive Officer, in July 2004.
The Bahwans group of Oman has shown its confidence in the ability of Indian A Gold Medallist from Guruvayurappan College in Calicut, India, Mr Vasanthan holds a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce. He has 38 years of diversified commercial and international banking experience both in India and abroad. He started his career in 1965 with Syndicate Bank, India and also led the U.K. operations of the bank for four years and continued to serve the bank until 1998 as General Manager.
After spending 33 years with Syndicate Bank, he moved on to join Andhra Bank, Hyderabad, India, as Executive Director. He was subsequently promoted as Chairman and Managing Director in 2000. He successfully led the bank through five consecutive years of record profits and this was rewarded with Andhra Bank being nominated as the Best Bank in 2003 by the Business Standard a reputed business magazine in India.He was awarded the Honorary Doctorate (Honoris Causa) by Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupathi, India, in recognition for his services and contributions in the area of Banking in 2003.
Human Rights Watch Discloses Tragic Story of Abdul Kareem who was Behaded in Saudi Arabia
Nazeema, a twenty-seven-year-old Indian Muslim who is the mother of two children, still believes that her husband Abdul Kalam will be returning any day from Saudi Arabia. Her relatives did not tell her about the letter that Abdul Kalam’s father received from the Indian embassy, dated February 8, 2003. The letter informed him that Abdul Kalam was executed on June 18, 1999 for alleged heroin smuggling. Abdul Kalam Azad Abdul Kadir, a native of the Palakkad district in Kerala state, went to Saudi Arabia for the first time in the early 1990’s and worked for three years as an agricultural laborer. His family told us that he sent them 2,000 to 3,000 rupees every few months. When he returned home, he got married. In 1997, when Abdul Kalam was thirty-five years old, he traveled to Mumbai with six other Indian workers and an “agent” from Tamil Nadu to secure another employment visa to the kingdom. Full Report
Story of Keralite/Philippino Housemaids in Saudi Arabia Sexual Abuse and Harassment
The testimonies that follow, which Human Rights Watch obtained from women migrants workers in 2003, describe labor exploitation, forced confinement, and other abuses. Jeddah: 1998-2000 Rajila, an unmarried Muslim woman from Kerala state in southwestern India, told Human Rights Watch how she and hundreds of other Asian women maintenance workers were subjected to exploitative labor conditions and, when they were not on the job, forced confinement. Rajila accepted a job in Saudi Arabia when she was thirty years old, with a plan to support her widowed mother and five unmarried younger sisters. She left her village without a written contract, on the verbal promise from a local travel agent that she would earn a monthly salary of 600 riyals, about $160, as a cleaner. She paid the agent 35,000 rupees -- about $770 -- for her legal employment visa and other costs, a sum that she borrowed. Rajila said that nine other Indian women joined her on the flight to Saudi Arabia. All of them were recruited to work for the same manpower company in Jeddah that supplied laborers to local hospitals.Rajila said that a company representative met the women at the airport in Jeddah and took them to a building that was to be their home – or “prison,” as she described it – for the next three years. About 300 women were housed in dormitory-style rooms in this building. Most of them were from Sri Lanka and the Philippines, and about thirty-five were Indians, she said. According to Rajila, the women worked twelve-hour shifts at various hospitals, six days a week, with one day off. They were not fed during working hours, and did not have a meal break or coffee breaks. Food brought from their dormitory had to be consumed quickly, when any respite in the schedule permitted. For Rajila, who worked in the emergency room of a maternity hospital, “there was no time for rest.” Full Report
Saudi Arabia: Foreign Workers Abused Torture, Unfair Trials and Forced Confinement Pervasive
(London, July 15, 2004) -- In Saudi Arabia foreign workers—who comprise one-third of the kingdom’s population—face torture, forced confessions and unfair trials when they are accused of crimes, Human Rights Watch said today in a report that offers a rare glimpse into the Saudi justice system. Saudi Arabia’s troubles run much deeper than the terror attacks that are claiming the lives of innocent civilian. The abuses we found against foreign workers demonstrate appalling flaws in the kingdom’s criminal justice system as a whole. If the Saudi government is serious about reform, this would be a good place to start.
