Oil giant Saudi Aramco reportedly forced a migrant worker to wear a surgical mask and a large hand sanitizer costume, serving as a human dispenser to keep Saudis safe from the Chinese coronavirus, photos on Tuesday revealed.
Photos of the worker showed him outside one of the company’s buildings distributing to staff members, presumably as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus.
Public outrage on social media denounced the image as both exploitative and racist, an example of Saudi Arabia’s mistreatment of its millions of foreign migrant workers, who also make up the bulk of the workforce across other Arab nations including Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.
“Don’t apologize to us, apologize to the person himself, honor him and post a picture of it,” one person wrote. “The one behind the idea, who did not fear God or respect the worker, make him wear the dispenser and walk around the company for an entire day.”
“Apologising is not enough, the person behind the idea needs to be punished, and the worker needs to be compensated financially and emotionally,” added another. “People’s feelings are not a toy.”
In a statement released in response to the incident, the company expressed its “strong dissatisfaction with this abusive behavior that was used to emphasize the importance of sanitization, without the approval of the company’s concerned party.”
“The company immediately stopped this act and took strict measures to prevent it from happening again,” it added.
Although perhaps not a household name in the United States, last December Aramco made an initial public offering that valued it a staggering $1.7 trillion, making it by far the most valuable company in the world. However, its share price has been on a steep decline since the beginning of the year, as concerns around the coronavirus have damaged the global economy and reduced oil demand from China.
Saudi Arabia itself has recorded at least 62 cases of the virus, making it one of the more than 100 countries where it is now present. According to the World Health Organization, more than 118,000 cases of the virus have been confirmed globally, and over 4,200 confirmed deaths.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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