Ambassador meets stranded Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia

DAMMAM: The Pakistan ambassador to Saudi Arabia visited a camp in Dammam where over 800 stranded Pakistanis are struggling to survive.

Over 8000 Pakistani labourers are stranded in various cities of Saudi Arabia after their employers failed to pay them salaries.

According to the foreign office, supply of food at two camps in Jeddah has been restored. In the other three camps stipend for food will be provided to the occupants.

Pakistan’s embassy in Riyadh has set up a special facilitation centre and fund for jobless Pakistani labourers stranded without wages in Saudi Arabia, the prime minister's office said on Tuesday.

Thousands of jobless Pakistanis, Indians, and Filipinos are stranded and destitute in the Kingdom after a plunge in oil prices sparked construction layoffs.

According to a spokesman for the Prime Minister House, the special centre would provide aid, food, medicine and shelter for the stranded Pakistani nationals.

"The (Pakistani) embassy has further informed that the Saudi King has issued a decree for urgent payment of dues to workers by the concerned," the office of the prime minister said.

The spokesman said the prime minister has issued directions for the assistance and complaint resolution of the labourers in Saudi Arabia.

On July 29, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development was briefed about 450 Pakistani workers facing financial problems in the Dammam area of Saudi Arabia.

The committee meeting at the Parliament House noted that overseas Pakistanis were facing severe financial problems as the company that hired them did not pay them salaries for the last several months.

Earlier it was reported that more than 1.6 million Pakistanis had proceeded to Saudi Arabia during 2011-15 for employment purposes, making the country the largest market for Pakistani workers across the world.