Buses set ablaze by angry workers in Makkah

[Zahoor Raja-Jani]

Makkah: Nine buses were set ablaze in the western Saudi city of Makkah by angry expatriate workers reportedly claiming that they had not received their wages.

A spokesperson for the Makkah civil defence said that their teams had to deal with seven buses torched near a worker’s accommodation belonging to the Binladin group.
The buses were parked when they were set on fire on Saturday evening.

Nayef Al Shareef, the spokesperson, added that there were no victims in the incident and that an investigation into the causes of the fire was launched by the civil defence general department in coordination with the competent authorities, Saudi news site Sabq reported.

Sources said that the workers started expressing their anger over their delayed wages in the afternoon when they broke the windows of some vehicles and the doors of some offices.




Online users condemned the arson attack, saying it could not be excused under any pretext, and called for drastic action against those who commit acts of sabotage. However, they insisted that all workers should be paid on time and should be given their financial dues without delays.



“There is a need for string measures against those who torched the buses,” a user writing under the moniker of Sniper, said. “People cannot commit such terrible acts of destruction and sabotage under any excuse, and if there is no deterrent, there will be more attacks and greater threats to public order.”

Another user, “In Love”, said that the company should not have delayed the wages.

“These are expatriate workers who left their families behind them at home so that they can make some money and spend it on them,” he posted. “They do need to be paid on time so that they can honour their commitments and look after their families. The company should have done more to avoid the incident and the resulting losses.”
Saudi Arabia is home to around nine million foreigners, making up one third of the total population. The expatriates are mainly Asians working in the construction and service sectors.
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