Rights group Amnesty International published on Monday a report that accused the Saudi Arabian franchise of French supermarket giant Carrefour of exploiting migrant workers.

Carrefour told AFP that an internal probe had not confirmed most allegations but was planning on conducting an external review.

Amnesty said it found migrant workers for Carrefour’s Saudi Arabian franchisee were deceived by recruitment agents, forced to work excessive hours, denied days off, cheated of their earnings and made to live in squalid accommodations.

“Workers thought they were opening the door to a better life but instead many were subjected to appalling exploitation and abuse,” said Marta Schaaf, who heads up Amnesty International’s corporate accountability programme.

“Carrefour’s inaction meant it failed to prevent this suffering, which for some contracted workers likely amounts to forced labour including human trafficking,” she added.

Amnesty based its report on interviews with 17 people recruited from India, Nepal and Pakistan to work in Carrefour stores in Saudi Arabia, which have been operated by the French retailer’s Middle East franchisee Majid Al Futtaim (MAF).

Amnesty said Carrefour has responsibility to ensure labour abuses do not occur throughout its operations, including in franchises, and called on it and MAF to remedy the situation and “ensure that workers in their operations are never harmed again.”

Carrefour said that it had discussions with Amnesty earlier this year on labour conditions in Saudi Arabia and that it had asked MAF to investigate.

“These preliminary investigations did not confirm the elements signalled by Amnesty’s alert but did reveal other problems: housing, training and accounting of work hours for which corrective actions were taken,” Carrefour told AFP on Friday.

It added that it had appointed an outside expert to review the human rights situation and the assessment methodology was being determined.

Saudi Arabia’s human resources ministry said on Monday that the government had a zero-tolerance policy for worker abuse.

“Any form of labour abuse or exploitation is unacceptable, and allegations of this nature are comprehensively investigated by the relevant authorities,” the ministry said in a written statement in response to questions from AFP.

The ministry also said it works closely with the governments of migrant workers’ home countries to combat abusive recruitment practices.

The statement did not specifically address Amnesty’s allegations against Carrefour.

Dubai-based MAF manages nearly 500 Carrefour stores in 30 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, with Saudi Arabia its second largest market behind the United Arab Emirates.

The company earned a net profit of around $735 million last year on revenues of $9.4 billion. 

Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris to handle key economic issues, although Harris earns slightly better marks on elements such as taxes for the middle class, according to a new poll.

A majority of registered voters in the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research describe the economy as poor. About 7 in 10 say the nation is going in the wrong direction.

But the findings reaffirm that Trump has lost what had been an advantage on the economy, which many voters say is the most important issue this election season above abortion, immigration, crime and foreign affairs.

“Do I trust Trump on the economy? No. I trust that he’ll give tax cuts to his buddies like Elon Musk,” said poll respondent Janice Tosto, a 59-year-old Philadelphia woman and self-described independent.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in September found neither Harris nor Trump had a clear advantage on handling “the economy and jobs.” But this poll asked more specific questions about whether voters trusted Trump or Harris to do a better job handling the cost of housing, jobs and unemployment, taxes on the middle class, the cost of groceries and gas, and tariffs.

The poll found that 46% of voters prefer Harris on middle-class taxes, compared to 35% for Trump. Harris also has a slight advantage on the cost of housing. Voters are about evenly divided on whether Trump or Harris is better on prices for everyday essentials like groceries and gas, and neither candidate has an edge on jobs and unemployment.

Voters, meanwhile, are slightly more likely to prefer Trump on the issue of tariffs, which were defined in the poll as taxes on imported goods.

Poll respondent Amber Moody, 36, from Halifax, Virginia, said she trusts Trump — and Republicans in general — much more on economic matters.

“It seems to me that in my lifetime, every time a Democrat holds office, the economy suffers,” she said. “Prices go up, taxes go up and the national debt goes up. While I don’t approve of everything Donald Trump says and does, I do believe he is the better choice.”

Voters see Harris more favorably than Trump

Voters’ impressions of Harris and Trump have remained steady over the last month.

About half of voters have a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Harris, while 46% see her unfavorably. Meanwhile, about 4 in 10 voters have a positive view of Trump and about 6 in 10 have an unfavorable view. Trump’s favorability ratings have been remarkably consistent over the last few months, even after two assassination attempts and a felony conviction.

Compared to last month, views of the candidates are stable among Black and Hispanic voters, as well as among men and women. Black voters’ views of Harris are overwhelmingly positive — about three-quarters have a favorable view of the Democratic candidate — and their views of Trump are negative, with about 2 in 10 holding a favorable view. Hispanic voters also view Harris more favorably than Trump, although the gap is narrower: About 6 in 10 Hispanic voters have a favorable view of Harris and about 4 in 10 have an favorable view of Trump.

The poll also shows a gender gap in views of the candidates heading into the final days of the election.

Overall, voters remain pessimistic about the state of the economy and the general direction of the country.

About half of voters describe the nation’s economy as very or somewhat poor. Republicans and independents are more likely than Democrats to express that view. There are modest signs of improvement, however, compared to an AP-NORC poll from October 2023, when about 7 in 10 U.S. adults thought the U.S. economy was in bad shape. The number was even worse in October 2022, when close to 8 in 10 Americans described the economy as poor.

About two-thirds of voters also say the country is headed in the wrong direction, while roughly one-third say things are moving in the right direction. Pessimism on that question has been fairly consistent over the last three years, although closer to 8 in 10 Americans thought the U.S. was heading in the wrong direction a year ago. U.S. adults were similarly gloomy just before the last presidential election, according to an AP-NORC poll from October 2020 when roughly 7 in 10 Americans felt the country was headed in the wrong direction.

Jeffrey Trimble, a 62-year-old Democrat from Hermitage, Pennsylvania, said he’s increasingly optimistic about the direction of the nation after “four years of hell” during Trump’s first term.

“We have some really good people at the top of our government who have a vision, they’re kind, they’re trying to get us back on track,” Trimble said.

Overall, the new poll highlights signs of trouble for both candidates as they work to assemble winning coalitions.

Younger voters are considerably more pessimistic about the health of the economy than older voters, and that’s not good news for Harris, whose party has long relied on strong support from voters of color and young people.

Voters under the age of 45 are also slightly less likely than voters over 45 to trust Harris to handle the cost of housing or the cost of groceries and gas, although that doesn’t mean they prefer Trump. Sizable shares of younger voters — about one-quarter on both issues — trust neither candidate or both equally.

Trump’s strongest issue remains immigration
On other issues, meanwhile, Trump’s most consistent advantage continues to be immigration.

Forty-five percent of voters say he’s the better candidate to handle immigration issues, compared to about 4 in 10 who prefer Harris. About half of white voters trust Trump more on the issue of immigration, while about one-third say this about Harris. Hispanic voters are split on which candidate they prefer to handle immigration.

Harris’ strongest issues are abortion policy, with about half of voters saying she’d be better on that issue compared to about 3 in 10 for Trump; climate change, where about half prefer her leadership and about 2 in 10 prefer Trump’s; and election integrity, where about half prefer Harris and about 3 in 10 prefer Trump.

The candidates are about even on the issue of crime. Foreign policy is also a key issue this fall, although neither candidate has a clear advantage on the situation in the Middle East. There are some signs of weakness on the issue for Harris within her own party, however. Only about two-thirds of Democratic voters say Harris would be the better candidate to handle the situation in the Middle East. Among Republicans, about 8 in 10 say Trump would be better.

Diana Campbell Williams, a 72-year-old Democrat who lives in Auburn, Michigan, cites foreign affairs as her top issue.

She says she’s concerned about Russia, Iran and North Korea. She doesn’t like Trump’s questioning of NATO and his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I trust Harris more,” Williams said. “I feel she knows more about what’s going on, and I prefer the type of people she’d be surrounded by after the election.”

The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed an increase of 0.28 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on October 17, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 319.79 points as compared to 318.91 points during the past week.

As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 15.02pc.

The weekly SPI with the base year 2015-16 =100 covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
Likewise, SPI for the lowest consumption group of up to Rs17,732 witnessed increase of0.27pc and went up to 313.74 points from last week’s 312.91 points.

The SPI for consumption groups of Rs17,732 to 22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175 and above Rs44,175, decreased by 0.28pc, 0.27pc, 0.28pc and 0.28pc, respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 19 (37.25%) items increased, 09 (17.65%) items decreased and 23 (45.10%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded major decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included onions (7.02%), bananas (2.83%), gur (1.82%), potatoes (1.15%), pulse mash (0.72%), rice irri-6/9 (0.40%), sugar (0.27%) and rice basmati broken (0.09%).

The commodities which recorded major increase in their average prices on week-on-week basis included tomatoes (26.24%), pulse moong (9.86%), pulse gram (3.15%), wheat flour (2.10%), diesel (2.01%), LPG (1.50%), garlic (1.31%), chicken (0.96%), eggs (0.68%), mustard oil (0.65%) and firewood (0.35%).

On-year basis, the commodities that witnessed a decrease included wheat flour (32.20%), electricity charges for q1 (20.32%), chilies powder (20.00%), diesel (17.05%), petrol (12.77%), cooking oil 5 liter (9.10%), rice basmati broken (8.18%), sugar (7.31%), eggs (6.24%), bread (5.03%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (4.93%) and washing soap (1.61%).

The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on year-on-year basis included gas charges for q1 (570.00%), pulse gram (80.85%), onions (51.32%), tomatoes (36.81%), chicken (34.53%), pulse moong (33.23%), powdered milk (25.37%), beef (23.62%), shirting (17.05%), cooked daal (14.41%), georgette (13.22%) and ladies sandal (12.52%).