Recruitment banned from Ebola-affected countries

The Ministry of Labor has imposed a ban on the recruitment of labor from Ebola-affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Deputy Labor Minister Moufarrej Al-Haqbani said the decision was taken as a preventive measure against the spread of the Ebola virus in the Kingdom, describing it as a temporary ban. “We have taken this action in coordination with the Ministry of Health (MoH), which stopped issuing Haj and Umrah visas to pilgrims from these endemic countries in April,” he noted.
The ministry also warned against travel to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The travel advisory issued cautioned citizens and residents to avoid all travel to these countries until further notice due to the active outbreak of Ebola virus in those countries.
Al-Haqbani said such a ban on these countries will not affect the labor market in the Kingdom since the manpower recruited from these countries are negligible in number. “Until June this year, there was a total of 527 workers deployed in the Kingdom from these three countries,” he said, pointing out that 152 of them are domestic workers. He also noted that the total number of visas issued to these three countries was 120 during this period and 88 of them were domestic workers.
The deputy minister also said that there is no reason for the Kingdom to impose a similar ban on Nigeria since the Ebola virus did not originate from that country.
However, Saudi missions abroad have been instructed to take maximum quarantine measures before issuing employment, business and pilgrimage visas to foreigners. “All new recruits to the Kingdom are subject to comprehensive medical tests in the their respective countries before the visas are issued by the Saudi missions,” Al-Haqbani said.
The new recruits will have to undergo medical tests at the clinics assigned by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Accredited Medical Clinics Association (Gamca) in their respective countries.
Three weeks ago, the GCC countries adopted a unified strategy against the deadly Ebola virus by training its health officials to combat the disease and to make use of the facilities available in the region to diagnose and treat such diseases within the Kingdom.
The Ebola outbreak — the worst ever — is centered in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, but has spread to other countries in recent months. It is a severe and often fatal disease that affects and kills up to 90 percent of humans infected with the virus. The Ebola virus is passed to humans through close contact with animals, such as fruit bats, monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees, carrying the virus.
Infected patients are highly contagious and pass the virus on to others who come in close contact with them either by exposure to objects that have been contaminated with infected blood or bodily fluids or through direct contact with the infected person’s blood or bodily fluids including sweat.
The incubation period for Ebola viral hemorrhagic fever is typically one week, during which time the infected person suffers from an array of symptoms such as fever, chills, back pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. As the virus progresses, those infected will experience a rash over their entire body, swelling of the eyes and genital area, bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes, ears, and rectum, followed by shock, coma and death in many cases.