Menu

Topics

Connect

Comments

Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.

‘Human hand sanitizer’ photo sparks apology from Saudi oil giant

As concerns over the novel coronavirus rise, many stores are reporting a declining stocks of hand sanitizers. As a precautionary effort, some people have attempted to make their own hand sanitizers from online recipes. But do homemade sanitizers actually work? – Mar 2, 2020

A Saudi oil company wants to wash its hands clean of controversy after photos of a “human hand sanitizer dispenser” were widely circulated on social media recently, amid broader concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Story continues below advertisement

The two photos, shared on social media on March 10, as verified by Storyful, show an alleged foreign worker of Aramco wearing a blue face mask and a white box around his body with a hand sanitizer dispenser in the middle.

The board reads “hand sanitizer,” and in one image a man can be seen taking some of the product onto his hand. The back of the board displays the proper hand-sanitizing technique.

It’s implied that the employee was made to walk around the premises, providing sanitizer to others in need.

Aramco released a formal apology on Tuesday, expressing its “dissatisfaction” over “this abusive behaviour.” The company said it never approved it.

Story continues below advertisement

The company said that it would have “immediately stopped this act” and that it has taken “drastic measures to prevent it from happening again.”

Aramco issued the statement amid backlash over the photos on social media.

Saudi Arabian actor and producer Hisham Fageeh tweeted the photos and called them “a gift from Aramco,” adding that they demonstrate the “social class discrimination of the Gulf.”

It’s unknown exactly when the original photos were taken, but they’ve emerged at a time when hand sanitizer use is on the rise due to global fears about COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Story continues below advertisement

An illustration of the photo was created by Kuwaiti cartoonist Abdelrahman Boland and depicts the worker with a tear running down his face in this version.

A Twitter user said the incident was at the company’s headquarters in Dhahran. The tiles in the viral photos match those in older images of Aramco’s offices.

meaghan.wray@globalnews.ca

Advertisement

You are viewing an Accelerated Mobile Webpage.

View Original Article