AlQa'dah 6, 1435, Sep 1, 2014, SPA -- The Ministry of Labor has suspended the issuance of recruitment visas granted for three African countries infected with Ebola virus, namely Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. This action has been taken as part of preventive measures and precautions to counter the virus spreading in West Africa. These measures and precautions are consistent with the directives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health to prevent the importation of the virus to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Deputy Minister of Labor Dr. Moufarrej bin Saad Al-Hagbani said in a press statement today that "After consultation with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labor has taken a decision to suspend the issuance of recruitment visas granted for the affected States. An agreement has been reached to ban recruitment temporarily. This is the same action taken last April regarding Hajj and Umrah visas granted for the same countries." He also said that the temporary ban on recruitment from the three countries will not affect the labor market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the volume of demand, because the rate of recruitment from these countries is very low compared to other nationalities. Until the middle of this year, the number of workers from these countries reached 527 (152 of which are domestic workers); while the number of visas issued during the same period reached 120 (88 of which were issued for domestic workers).
