Visas for Filipina Maids As Rules Eased
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Wednesday 4 June 2014 6 Sha’baan 1435 Volume 19 Number 6086 Price: QR2 Oil sector needs $48 trillion funds Business | 17 10 48 DAYS TO GO www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Egypt’s Sisi wins 97 percent vote Saudi MERS More visas for deaths jump on data review RIYADH: Saudi Arabia Filipina maids announced a jump of nearly 50 percent in deaths from a new virus yesterday after re-exam- ining old data that also showed the number of infections since as rules eased 2012 was a fifth higher than previously reported. The increase in total confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Indonesia imposes temporary ban Syndrome (MERS) to 688 from 575, and the rise in deaths from the virus DOHA: Qatar has begun and the charges of hiring an to 282 from 190, came in a review of issuing work visas for Indonesian maid have gone up data ordered by the Health Ministry. Filipina maids in increasing to QR15,000 ($4,119.2), while the The sharp increase in deaths numbers after Indonesia has charges are lower (QR12,000) for now attributed to MERS means imposed a temporary ban on Filipina maids. the mortality rate from the virus the export here of domestic Qatari families have been com- in Saudi Arabia is now 41 percent. help. plaining that most maids being However, the ministry said that Sources at the Philippine supplied by manpower agencies although the total number of his- Overseas Labour Office (POLO) are the ones who have worked torical cases had risen, the rate said yesterday they were now here before. of infection in the most recent endorsing some 80 recruitment “Many come here with phone Egyptians celebrate the outcome of presidential elections at Tahrir Square in Cairo, yesterday. Abdel Fattah outbreak appeared to be slowing. requests for maids a day. SIM cards. They know this place Al Sisi was elected president with almost 96.9 percent of the vote, the Electoral Commission announced. Of the total, 53 patients were The average last year was 30 and they already have contacts, See report on page 6 still being treated, while 353 had applications a day, said POLO so they run away,” a citizen told recovered, the statement said. sources. Filipina maids, who are the daily. “While the review has resulted favourites of Qatari households, Manpower agencies should in higher total number of previ- had almost stopped coming here replace a maid after one runs ously unreported cases, we still after their country raised the away, said the citizen. Health card to be integrated with ID see a decline in the number of new minimum wage limit to $400 a Many suspect that manpower cases reported over the past few month. agencies are behind runaway weeks,” Tariq Madani, head of the “We are being told by man- cases. A national said that some- DOHA: Many expatri- a health card. There is a new sys- a workers’ hospital in Industrial Health Ministry’s scientific advi- power agencies that Qatar’s times a maid comes here only to ate workers who don’t have tem which will incorporate health Area, that will be attached with sory board, was quoted as saying interior ministry is now issu- run away. health cards will benefit card with the ID card, the Qatar a health center for the same in an emailed statement. ing visas for Filipina maids in “Three maids came together from the government’s plan News Agency quoted the Minister segment. large numbers,” said the POLO from a country and got to integrate the health card as saying. Another health centre for Msheireb Properties sources. “No formal announce- employed in three different with the Qatari identity card, The Supreme Council of Health workers is under construction ment has been made in this households. One fine day they the Minister of Pubic Health (SCH) had earlier said that citi- in Dikhreet area near Dukhan regard, though.” together ran away,” another H E Abdullah bin Khalid Al zens and expatriates will be able which can serve up to 5,000 lending by 2015 “We began getting more citizen said. Qahtani has said. to avail of the national health workers recruitment requests last But an agency official, Abdul Speaking at an interactive insurance scheme, Seha, through Two other workers’ hospitals DOHA: Msheireb Properties February-March,” said a POLO Rahim Ahmed, denied the accu- session on Monday to discuss their Qatari ID card. Seha is cur- in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed will will begin giving away residen- source. “This is something posi- sation and said the problem was achievements of the National rently is in its second phase cov- be handed over by the end of next tial and commercial units on tive. They still prefer Filipina that people came running to Health Strategy (NHS) 2011- ering all citizens. year and ready for operation by rent beginning 2015, the com- maids.” them after three months com- 2016, the Minister said work The Minister said introduction the first quarter of 2016, said the pany’s CEO said yesterday. Local Arabic daily Al Raya, plaining that the maid had run is progressing on three hospi- of the new system will be compli- minister. Abdulla Hassan Al Mehshadi meanwhile, reported yesterday away. tals and several health centres mented with opening of several As part of an expansion plan, told Al Sharq at Cityscape that the Indonesian mission had “After three months we are not meant exclusively for expatriate new health care facilities exclu- hospital beds in Qatar will be exhibition yesterday that 50 stopped endorsing recruitment responsible for the conduct of a labourers. sively for expatriate workers. increased to 6,600 by 2030 and percent of their projects would requests for maids and the hir- maid,” said Ahmed. “Why don’t In the past, many single work- A new health centre for work- there is a plan to set up 54 new be completed by 2014-end and ing of Ethiopian maids had also people come complaining in those ers had been facing difficulties in ers in Mesaimeer is getting ready primary health centres, 11 of they would start retail renting seized. three months?” he asked. accessing hospitals and health for opening in November this which will cater to single workers. of properties from next year. Jakarta has raised the rates THE PENINSULA centres because they didn’t have year, while work is progressing on THE PENINSULA THE PENINSULA/REUTERS UAE arrests Dusty, windy weather forecast Asian on DOHA: The weather bureau has forecast a dusty and windy weather for today and tomorrow. The bureau has said northwesterly wind with speed as high as 35 knots an hour at times, accompanied with spying charges dust, could reduce visibility to two kilometers at places. A relieving ABU DHABI: Emirati authori- part of the weather forecast is that there could be some reprieve in ties have arrested an Asian heat as day maximum temperatures might come down to 40 degrees resident suspected of spying Celsius today and tomorrow. Sea waves could be as high as 10 feet at for a foreign country by provid- places. “The Met office calls on everyone to take necessary precau- ing sensitive military informa- tion during this weather,” a release from the bureau said yesterday. tion deemed threatening to the UAE, state news agency WAM reported yesterday. Pakistani politician held in London Neither the man’s identity nor the country for which he was KARACHI: The powerful exiled leader of Pakistan’s Muttahida allegedly working were named. Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, Altaf Hussain, was arrested in The suspect is accused of London yesterday on suspicion of money-laundering as thousands of “spying for a foreign country in people in his home city of Karachi staged a rally calling for his release. order to damage the political Staunchly secular and dominated by the Mohajir ethnic group who and military status of the United migrated from India at the time of partition, the MQM describes Arab Emirates,” WAM quoted itself as a bulwark against Talibanisation — but critics say it is also Prosecutor General Ahmad Al responsible for much of the violence that wracks Pakistan’s biggest Danhani as saying. city. Hussain’s arrest, confirmed by Pakistan’s government, has sparked He had allegedly been “exploit- fears of a major backlash there. ing his job at one of the country’s British police said only that a 60-year-old man had been detained President Bashar Al Assad and his wife Asma Al Assad casting their votes at a polling station in Maliki, in Damascus, yesterday. ports and was seeking to illegally at a residential address in northwest London on suspicion of money- obtain military information con- laundering, and that officers were searching the building. sidered among the national secu- See also page 12 Syrians vote in wartime election rity secrets” of the UAE. Based on findings of the state security service, the suspect was Indian minister dies in accident LONDON: Syrians in govern- Nouri — voted in the Sheraton hotel. In the Bab Al Salam refu- asked to gather “information and NEW DELHI: India’s minister for rural development died ment-controlled areas of the war- But in Aleppo, thousands of res- gee camp on the Turkish border, documents on sensitive military yesterday after a road collision in New Delhi, depriving Prime torn country went to the polls idents of rebel-held districts fled Ibrahim al-Khalilm, 43, who lost installations” by people working for Minister Narendra Modi of a key ally eight days after coming to yesterday to elect a president in a for the countryside before a day of both his legs in an air strike last a foreign country aiming to obtain office with a mandate to revitalise a stalled economy.