Tariq A. Al-Maeena

 

When we hear the words "thrown out" a picture of a sack of garbage or a bucket of dirty water heading toward the nearest dumpster immediately forms in our mind.  But this is not how a story was told.



A few days ago a caption heading a news story caused me to do a double take.  The news report, in another local daily I may add, was headed by the caption: "Illegal expats will be thrown out."  The remark was attributed to the Minister of Labor Adel Fakeih.  When you read such an offensive statement, the first thing that comes to mind is how dare he!  Are these human beings he is talking about or pieces of dirt?  All living souls must be afforded a degree of respect regardless of their financial situation.  People just don’t get thrown out, full stop!



I was offended by such a caustic remark and in reading the full story came to realize that such words were indeed not said by Mr. Fakeih.  What he actually said was, and I quote from that particular article: “We’ll intensify the ongoing campaign to drive out all illegal workers. Only those people who respect and abide by the country’s laws and system must stay… We are determined to clean up the labor market and we’ll not allow violators to work in the country for any reason.”



Now that is a fair statement from the Minister of Labor as his organization has been feverishly working to straighten out the mess that has existed for many years, especially with regard to undocumented and runaway workers.  There are ongoing security concerns and the specter of a rising rate of unemployment among the local population that need to be addressed. But in carefully reading the article, nowhere did I read that he was going to "throw" them out. 



But I was not the only one whose ire was raised by reading that caption.  Several readers of that story expressed their anger and misdirected them at the poor minister who was not even aware of the storm that an eager reporter had created with his poor choice of words.  One said: “This newspaper makes most of its revenue from the expatriate English-speaking community (the majority of them in the Indo-Pak community) and yet it has the audacity to use such a hideous headline to insult and vilify the community ... Wow.. such high standards of professionalism...every expatriate should stop buying this paper.”



Another equally incensed reader added: “After expats have served the Kingdom and made its economy grow, now it is time for them to be thrown out just like a piece of trash. Please use nice decent words that will make you be praised rather than hated. These expats are also human, not animals.” One more said: “The caption even affects legal expatriates who are performing their duties tirelessly for the development of this country and for their career. It gives them a negative impact morally.”



And finally one from an obviously cynical reader: “To all the expats who are hurt by the term "thrown out"...….I guess you are under the false assumption that your feelings matter in this region.”



Feelings do matter, my friend, and there are many Saudis who appreciate the immense contributions by expats to the development of this country. Unfortunately, expatriates have had to bear the brunt of a lot of negative criticism in the media in recent years.  It seems that suddenly all the good they have done for the country has evaporated into thin air.  Some reporters and columnists have become liberal in their attacks on the presence of expatriates and have occasionally been downright insulting, something no one should be subjected to.  Such assaults can only breed insecurity in the minds of guest workers.



It is ironic, however, that in this particular incident, the reporter who prepared and submitted the story is himself an expat!  Perhaps it was just a case of a poor choice of words.

 

— The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena