Saudi firms that run into financial trouble because of the coronavirus epidemic will be allowed to cut workers' wages by 40% – and then sack them after six months – under a decision approved by the kingdom's ministry of human resources.
In legal terms, it means companies can break existing...
Blog archive: Saudi Arabia
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5th May 2020
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26th April 2020Saudi Arabia has announced an easing of its coronavirus restrictions to allow for "the return of some economic activities in line with health instructions". On the face of it, this could be a risky move because the Covid-19 virus is still spreading more rapidly in the kingdom than among any...
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23rd April 2020In Saudi Arabia the number of known Covid-19 infections has more than doubled during the past week. Earlier this month, when the tally was just over 2,000, the health minister warned that expert studies were predicting a minimum of 10,000 and a maximum of 200,000 confirmed cases "over the next...
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20th April 2020Kuwait's health ministry is discriminating between Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis in its allocation of treatment for Covid-19 patients, according to a document circulated on social media. The document is a flow chart telling medical staff what to do when someone tests positive for the virus. It...
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17th April 2020Migrant workers are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus epidemic in the wealthy Gulf states. Often living in over-crowded accommodation, they are at particular risk of infection. Many are now also jobless. Some have been deported. Thousands more want to return home – but can't. India rejects...
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14th April 2020Arab states in the Gulf are reporting large numbers of new Covid-19 infections among migrant workers. ● In Bahrain, foreign labourers account for almost half the confirmed cases – more than 600 have tested positive. ● In Kuwait, 679 of the 1,300 confirmed cases are reported to be Indian...
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9th April 2020War-torn Yemen is one of the few countries in the world where no Covid-19 cases have yet been reported, but it's widely expected that if the virus does take hold there the result will be catastrophic. Yesterday, at the behest of the UN's special envoy, the Saudi-led coalition which has been...
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8th April 2020The Saudi government warned yesterday that Covid-19 infections in the kingdom could rise to 200,000 over the next few weeks – more than 70 times the current official figure – and appealed for more cooperation from the public. Restrictions on movement and social contact in Saudi Arabia are not...
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25th March 2020Amid rapidly-growing numbers of new infections and the first two coronavirus-related deaths, Saudi Arabia is sealing off the cities of Riyadh, Mecca and Medina. From tomorrow, no one will be allowed to leave or enter. Movement between the kingdom's 13 administrative regions will also be...
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23rd March 2020Four Arab countries have now declared nationwide curfews in an effort to check the spread of coronavirus. In Kuwait, a night-time curfew – from 5pm to 4am – came into effect on Sunday. The deputy prime minister said the move was regrettable but had become necessary because people were "failing...
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4th November 2019I don't often get emails from the Saudi government, but one arrived yesterday offering me $5,000. It came from the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) which is looking for "collaborative input" on plans to transform the Saudi capital into "a sustainable, responsible, inspiring place to...
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11th October 2019Twitter's hashtags offer a quick and easy way to find out what people are saying on a given topic. But for those who dislike what is being said there's also a quick and easy way to obstruct the discussion: they can summon an army of bots to flood the hashtag with irrelevant tweets. This is a...
