Arab News:
March 24, 2013
Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal yesterday
distributed free residency permits (iqamas) to the first applicants of the
Burmese community in a historic move to legalize the status of nearly 500,000
refugees in the Kingdom.
“This is one of the beautiful moments in my life,”
said Prince Khaled while addressing a ceremony at Kudai near Makkah. He thanked
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for issuing his instructions to
correct the residency status of a huge group of expatriates who have been living
in the Kingdom for several years.
“It was one of the first proposals I presented to King
Abdullah after becoming the governor of Makkah,” Prince Khaled said to the
applause of the large gathering including OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin
Ihsanoglu and Burmese community leaders. “King Abdullah ordered the formation
of a ministerial committee for the development of disorganized residential
districts in Makkah to improve the situation of Burmese Muslims living in those
districts,” he said.
“This is one of the unique experiments in the world,”
the governor said, adding that the Kingdom has taken drastic measures to tackle
the problem. “We are not just building new homes to develop these districts. We
also rehabilitate some 400,000 to 500,000 people living there,” he pointed out.
Prince Khaled said the government would provide
Burmese community members with health care, social services, education and
develop their residential areas as part of a comprehensive program. “We’ll also
train them to get jobs,” he pointed out.
Under the Labor Ministry’s Nitaqat (naturalization)
program, the employment of four Burmese is equal to one foreigner. This
incentive was given to encourage private companies to employ more Burmese to
meet their labor requirements. “You cannot see such a comprehensive
rehabilitation program anywhere in the world,” the governor said.
“This is an unprecedented incident in the world,” said
Mohammed Tayeb, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s office in the Makkah
region, while commending the government’s efforts to issue four-year iqamas to
Burmese citizens free of charge and provide them with educational, health and
social services.
Mohammed Rauf Rafi, secretary-general of European
Rohingya Council in the Kingdom, said there are about 350,000 Burmese Muslims
in Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah. Saudi authorities intend to issue iqamas to all
Burmese within four to six months. He disclosed plans to open a media center
for the Rohingyas at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.