Cairo: The Gulf countries will depend on a health body in its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to oversee health screening facilities for expatriates in their own countries before they are allowed to work in the GCC states, according to Saudi Okaz newspaper.
The migrant workers will be examined again after their arrival for employment in the GCC states, the paper added today, citing an unidentified source.
The plan aims at putting in place measures ensuring that foreigners coming to the GCC countries for work or residence are free of contagious diseases and they are fit for their jobs, according to the source.
In 2016, the GCC foreign ministers agreed to cooperate in expat health checks through an electronic linkage system and shun dealing with health centres that are not accredited by the Gulf Health Council.
Over the past three years before the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic, the number of authorized health centres to examine workers in India, Pakistan and Egypt has increased by 37, according to the report. Those facilities have reached 334 in the three countries, which account for the bulk of workers in the Gulf states.