7 buses in Makkah set on fire

Badea Abu Al-Naja Saudi Gazette MAKKAH — Workers laid off by one of Saudi Arabia’s largest employers set fire to buses Saturday night, eyewitnesses and media reports said. Footage uploaded to YouTube showed workers of the Saudi Binladin Group protesting outside the construction company’s offices in Makkah, and setting fire to seven buses. Makkah Civil Defense spokesman Capt. Naif Al-Sharif said the Civil Defense received reports that seven buses parked near the residential quarters of the Saudi Binladen Group were on fire. The Civil Defense managed to extinguish the fire. There were no injuries. The Civil Defense is investigating the cause of the fire, Capt. Al-Sharif told Okaz. The protesting workers are among 50,000 expat laborers who have been sacked by the company. Al-Watan Arabic daily reported on Friday that Binladin had given the sacked foreign workers a permanent exit visa to leave the country but many of them do not want to leave. Al-Watan also said that some of the workers had not been paid for at least four months. The mass sacking by Binladin constitutes a 25 percent reduction of its total 200,000 workforce, according to its LinkedIn page. The company, which was established in 1931 is one of Saudi Arabia’s largest employers. It has been responsible for large construction projects.