Sana’a Center: Saudi Arabia’s campaign to purge Yemeni workers is a “punitive measure”
English - Sunday 08 August 2021 الساعة 05:38 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
In an editorial report published on Thursday, the Sana’a Center for Studies dealt with what it described as “Riyadh’s immoral campaign to purify Yemeni workers,” while considering the interim President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s failure to raise the matter with the Saudis “an indication of his (Hadi’s) uselessness for Yemenis and additional evidence.” He must be removed from office."
The report said, "Saudi Arabia has recently started a campaign to purge its government institutions of Yemenis who have been working in the Kingdom for decades, noting that the Kingdom has issued directives to state institutions to refuse to renew employment contracts for Yemenis.
The report suggested that this policy will likely affect the Saudi labor market, as well as hundreds of thousands of Yemenis in the Kingdom and millions of their families in Yemen who depend on remittances to secure their livelihood.
The Sana’a Center for Studies said, “The impact of this new Saudi policy will almost certainly be reflected on the entire labor market due to the centrality of the Saudi economy and the fact that a large part of the private sector depends on and contracts with Saudi institutions, and thus it is likely that hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and their families will be forced into the Kingdom. to leave.”
He warned that the expulsion of Yemeni workers - if it is allowed to continue at this pace - will likely undermine the possibility of the cohesion and resilience of the Republic of Yemen after the war, adding: "It is almost certain that the decrease in remittances will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, social instability and armed conflict for years."
Reports of mass dismissals of Yemeni academics from universities in Najran, Jizan, Asir, and Al Baha during the month of July are but a small example of what is happening.
While the kingdom appears to be focusing on purging Yemeni workers from its southern cities adjacent to Yemen, there are reports of Yemenis losing their jobs across Saudi Arabia.
The report said that “Saudi Arabia’s campaign to localize the workforce by gradually making it difficult for expatriates to work in the Kingdom, such as increasing residence costs and bureaucratic requirements for all non-Saudi workers and expelling undocumented workers, forced tens of thousands of Yemenis to return to their country, while the ongoing war increased the negative impact of the loss of remittances."
The Sana’a Center for Studies considered that “Riyadh’s new policy is not part of its plan to Saudize the workforce, but rather appears as a punitive measure against Yemenis in particular,” noting that “the value of the Yemeni riyal has fallen insanely amid Yemenis’ loss of livelihoods, and the humanitarian crisis has sharply exacerbated.
He pointed out that this step comes after Saudi Arabia sponsored the failed transition process in Yemen after 2011 that paved the way for the current war, and after the disastrous military intervention - which claimed countless lives and resulted in human suffering described as the worst - tore Yemen's economy and left the armed Houthi group firmly entrenched in Sanaa.
The report said that Riyadh continued to support Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, whose corruption and incompetence have constantly fragmented the cohesion of the Yemeni opposition against the Houthis, and lost the citizens' trust in the Yemeni state.
And he added, "After everything that happened, Saudi Arabia today targets Yemeni workers in the kingdom, whose remittances are one of the few safety nets that protect Yemen from descending to the bottom of the abyss."
The Sana'a Center for Studies warned that this Saudi policy would not only undermine the Yemeni government, which Riyadh claims it wants to regain control of in Sana'a, but also harm Yemenis on a large scale.
He stressed that President Hadi did not move a finger to raise this issue with the Saudis, considering it "an indication that he (Hadi) is not useful to Yemenis and further evidence of the need to remove him from his position."
The Sana’a Center for Studies concluded by saying that "this Saudi purge campaign reflects a flagrant moral failure and international actors must be aware that the presence of a failed state in the south of the Arabian Peninsula - where the most powerful actor is the Houthis, Iran's allies - will have repercussions on the region and the world."
