Arab states comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are tightening their medical screening process for newly arriving expatriates to prevent the entry of communicable diseases, a Saudi Arabian news site reported Monday.
According to gmanetwork.com, the GCC also plans to closely watch accredited health centres in the manpower-exporting countries.
Citing its sources, the report said "Bangladesh and Philippines are among the countries whose medical centres have erroneously sent sick individuals to the region."
It added many Asian nationals had been deported after arriving in Saudi Arabia after managing to fly out even if they were declared medically unfit in their home countries.
Basheer Al-Sufyani, head of a mission that inspected and evaluated accredited health centres in South Asian countries, noted some 2.2 million expatriates seek employment in GCC countries. Of these, one million have applied to Saudi Arabia.
GCC also includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
Still, Al-Sufyani said preliminary screening has reduced the number of infected persons entering GCC countries to nearly five percent of all new arrivals.
The Arab News report said an inspection team from an expatriate health checkup mission launched by the executive board of the GCC Health Ministers Council recently visited South Asian countries.
It conducted random checks and evaluated the performance of accredited health centres, the report said.
Arab News quoted Al-Sufyani as saying there are 298 accredited health centres in 11 manpower-exporting countries, including 31 in the Philippines.
He said India has 107 centres, Bangladesh 35, Indonesia 30, Pakistan 22, Sri Lanka 15, Egypt 13, Nepal 12, Syria six and Sudan five.
"Nationals from these countries, as well as Ethiopia, are required to undergo medical screening prior to having their GCC employment visas endorsed," Al-Sufyani said.
However, he added expats will be checked again upon entering a GCC state to check for possible medical error.
