Algeria Refuses To Ratify Medical Files Of Workers In Saudi Arabia

Algerian workers who were heading to Saudi Arabia, were surprised when the Algerian Foreign Ministry refused to ratify their medical files that are required to complete the contracts of work and residence in the Kingdom without receiving any warning, while the Saudi Embassy in Algeria asked the Algerian workers to bring the ratification of their files from the Foreign Ministry, which prevents them from going to work or reside in the Kingdom.

In this context, Algerians who were heading to Saudi Arabia in the context of work and residence contracts, said that the State Department told them about the impossibility of ratification of their medical files, and that ratification should be made by the Health Ministry, noting that this procedure came into force on March 28, according to what was told by the Foreign Ministry.

After the response from the Algerian Foreign Ministry, the Algerian nationals went to the Saudi Embassy in Ben Aknoun, but its answer was the impossibility to get a visa or documents, if they will not present the required document which is the certification that carries the seal of the Algerian Foreign Ministry, and without it there is no room to try.

Algerian workers remained in the round-robin between the Foreign Ministry building in Algiers Les Annassers and the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Ben Aknoun, and each time they receive the same answers that they heard previously, what prevented the majority of them from joining their work in Saudi Arabia, as some of them have lost their jobs because they found themselves turning in a vicious circle.

These developments come at a time when relationships between Algeria and Saudi Arabia witness a crisis and an undeclared silent war, which first harbingers began when Algeria made reservations on the Arab League’s decision to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and its position on the military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, when the Presidential Advisor, Tayeb Belaiz, travelled to Riyadh and delivered a message to Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

Tension continued in the recent Gulf summit which announced the support of the Gulf countries’ council to the Moroccan thesis on the Western Sahara issue, which came out from the principle of neutrality and the duty of the reservation, and announced their overt and unconditional support for Rabat.