Saudi Oil Giant Apologizes For Using Worker As ‘Human Hand Sanitizer Dispenser’
Image via Shutterstock.com
Saudi oil juggernaut Aramco has come clean about a couple of viral photos that depict a worker walking around its facility as a “human hand sanitizer” for public use.
Earlier this month, Saudi Arabian actor and producer Hisham Fageeh shared a set of photos featuring the employee wearing a face mask and a board over his body reading, “Hand sanitizer.” The board came attached with a hand sanitizer dispenser, and the back of it displayed instructions for the proper hand-disinfecting technique.
In one of the photos, another man is seen utilizing the dispenser worn over the worker’s body. Fageeh captioned the post as, “a gift from Aramco,” and added that it showcased the “social class discrimination of the Gulf.”
The visuals immediately made their rounds on the internet, and social media users began expressing their displeasure over the matter. One even declared that using “a human as hand sanitizer dispenser” was a “form of slavery.” Another user labeled the worker as “a human hand sanitizer dispenser.”
Aramco later released a formal apology confessing its “dissatisfaction” for the “abusive behavior.” The company also defended that it had never approved of the stunt.
Aramco further emphasized that the company would have instantly stopped the act from even occurring, and is now taking “drastic measures to prevent it from happening again.”
طبقية خليجية
— هشام فقيه (@HishamFageeh) March 10, 2020
اهداء من أرامكو pic.twitter.com/FpWsUNw7mE
Using a human as hand sanitizer dispenser isn’t ethical neither humane. This is a form of slavery. Aramco should fix this and apologize #SaudiArabia #SaudiAramco pic.twitter.com/6irsxnsUmO
— Lilly (@LillyArabia) March 10, 2020
#SlaveryWasNeverAbolished.
— th1an1 (@th1an1) March 11, 2020
Saudi Arabia's oil company Aramco used a migrant worker as a walking hand sanitizer dispenser for the rest of the employees.#AbolishSlavery
Pics by @amalk4 & @HishamFageeh pic.twitter.com/XfjJtloOgD
Saudis are the worst. No, this isn’t a joke. It’s pictures of a human hand sanitizer dispenser in the offices of Saudi state oil company Aramco. https://t.co/WuGXmJHnm6
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 11, 2020
إشارة إلى الصور المتداولة في وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي لأحد الزملاء مرتدياً ما يشبه عبوة للتعقيم في أحد مرافقها، تود #أرامكو السعودية أن تعرب عن استيائها الشديد من هذا التصرف المسيء الذي أريد به التأكيد على أهمية التعقيم، دون أخذ موافقة من الجهة المعنية بالشركة.
— أرامكو (@Saudi_Aramco) March 10, 2020
[via Global News, cover image via Shutterstock.com]
