SWAT: The people seeking employment in Saudi Arabia have claimed that several designated medical laboratories in Peshawar are falsely failing their medical tests though they’re healthy.

These labs are authorised by the Saudi Embassy to conduct medical tests required for work visas.

Talking to reporters here, complainants claimed 99 per cent of the people undergoing X-ray and blood tests were declared failed, with agents outside those labs offering the required results for a substantial fee.

They insisted that as visas were valid for a short time, those workers had to approach those agents, who charged Rs0.1 million-Rs0.15 million and Rs50,000-Rs0.1 million for tests and X-ray, respectively.

Najibullah, who has a work visa for Saudi Arabia, told Dawn that he was declared HCV-positive by a designated medical laboratory in Peshawar.

Insist designated laboratories falsely failing their tests

“I doubted that test result and went to the country’s leading Shaukat Khanum and Aga Khan labs, which cleared me,” he said.

The worker said the Amreek Laboratory in Swat also declared him healthy, but the designated lab refused to acknowledge those results.

He claimed that an agent outside the designated lab offered him passed test on the payment of Rs100,000.

“This episode raises concerns about exploitation and fraudulent practices in the medical testing process for Saudi work visas,” he said.

Noman and Adnan, residents of Matta area in Swat, also claimed that they underwent medical tests at designated labs for work visas and were diagnosed with hepatitis.

They added that the lab cleared their tests after they paid Rs120,000 each to an agent.

Mohammad Amin, who currently works in Saudi Arabia, told Dawn over the phone that his X-ray examination at the designated laboratory showed faulty result but an agent present outside the lab gave away the report of passed test on payment of Rs80,000.

Some other workers in Saudi Arabia also confirmed the assertion and insisted that they, too, paid Rs0.1 million to Rs0.15 million for test clearance.

When contacted, the administration officer of a designated laboratory in Peshawar denied the alleged malpractice by the lab and insisted that if some agent was involved in it, his lab had nothing to do with it.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2024