No efforts ongoing to employ persons suffering from autism

The Kingdom’s authorities and the private sector have failed to employ nearly 100 citizens suffering from autism, who have the capacity to perform jobs.

Until now there have been no honest efforts to employ individuals suffering from autism, Zakaria Hashim, head of the Autism Society told Tribune.

“Centres and schools accept autistic children up to the age of 16. After this age, there is no place for them to go. The government should come up with a plan to employ individuals suffering from autism as a majority of them have capabilities to perform jobs. “They can perform many tasks including office jobs. It seems the government has no plans to employ them, while the private sector refrains from hiring them.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development said that 33 persons with disabilities (26 males and 7 females) were employed through the Services Centre for the Disabled. The ministry pointed out that the Centre registered 66 new cases in 2017 which include persons suffering from different disabilities.

“They were evaluated and a resume was created for each new registrar. Also, a large group of companies were approached to schedule appointments and search for vacancies.”