Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — Foreign workers not under the sponsorship of Saudi contractors working at Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP) were prevented from entering the facility Sunday despite a grace period of three months granted by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for expatriates violating labor and residence laws to correct their statuses, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported Monday. The sources said, as a result, the problem of unloading goods was still continuing. They said a recruitment company was trying to resolve the problem by importing foreign manpower from outside but it needed two to three weeks to be able to do this. About 80 percent of foreign workers who were not under the sponsorship of seaport contractors could not enter the facility. Only 200 out of 1,000 workers are now working in the seaport. As a result the unloading of goods has been delayed. The sources said some containers remained unloaded for more than 10 days. Meanwhile, Nashwa Taher, chairperson of the strategic trade committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), warned the prices of goods might go up as a result of the ongoing crisis at the seaport. “The merchants and consumers will be the ultimate victims of this crisis.” Nashwa described the correctional decisions as good but warned a lack of coordination between concerned government departments and the private sector might reflect negatively on the economy. Chairman of the JCCI's committee on customs clearance Ibrahim Al-Aqeeli said the acute labor shortage in goods handling companies is delaying the clearance of goods. “This has culminated in conflicts between the traders and the Customs officials.” Meanwhile, Saher Bin Musa Tahlawi, Director General of the seaport, has denied reports about stockpiling of goods at the port due to the absence of workers. He told Saudi Press Agency (SPA): “The handling capacity of the seaport is 7 million containers and 130 million tons of goods annually.” He said the seaport handles more than 13,000 import-export containers every day with an average weight of 170,000 tons of various goods and commodities. “Every single day we unload a total of 4,500 containers and deliver the goods to the importers.” Tahlawi said the seaport is working with high operational efficiency and that its piers receive large container ships more than 360 meters long each and weighing more than 14,000 tons.
