Nitaqat woes dampen Eid for some expats

JOY OF EID: An expatriate child buys sweets at a shop in Jeddah. Some children may not be so lucky this year because their parents’ bank accounts have been frozen. This is for failing to comply with Nitaqat regulations. (Photo Courtesy: Arab News) Jeddah: While many expatriates are preparing to celebrate Eid by shopping, traveling domestically or to their home countries, others are not so lucky because they have not been able to renew their residence permits and had their bank accounts frozen. This has been the result of some companies failing to comply with the rules of the Nitaqat system. Some firms have fallen into the Red Zone, which does not allow them to hire new foreign workers or renew the visas of their current expatriate staff. A leading construction company that has been carrying out some mega projects in the Kingdom has not renewed the iqamas of its expatriate workforce for two months. A Pakistani worker here, who wished to remain anonymous, said that he had to cancel his plans to spend time at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah and in Taif because of this problem. “I can’t go anywhere. I’m now confined to Jeddah.” His iqama expired three months ago. “My children keep asking me where they are going for the holidays but I cannot explain to them why we are not able to move out of the city,” he said. He said several other workers at his company are in the same position. The firms in the Red Zone have not been able to process their employees’ exit and reentry visas. The bank accounts of these workers have also been frozen, leaving them in dire financial straits, he said. An Indian expatriate, who did not want to be named, said that he is also in a legal limbo. “After all, Eid is for the children, who are desperate to travel to new places. It is disappointing for them now that we cannot do so.” “Our situation is difficult, in addition to the iqama renewal delay, we did not receive our salaries on time. We only received our salaries last week, after a two-month delay. But we still cannot travel to Makkah, Madinah or any other city in the Kingdom because we have not renewed our iqamas,” he said. According to sources in the construction industry, employers at small, medium and large firms are in this situation.   Arab News