Including seasonal workers and their dependants, they account for at least 1m people, perhaps 2m.

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Larger forts, some of which predated the wall, garrisoned the troops and housed their dependants.

BBC: Walking Hadrian��s Wall

Saudi men earlier had the option of requesting alert messages about their dependants' cross-border movement, but it appears that since last week such notifications are being sent automatically.

BBC: Saudi women in Riyadh. File photo

Most keep their families and dependants back in their home countries, where they place no demands on South Africa's hospitals and schools.

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For each laid-off miner, up to ten dependants lose their chief source of income.

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Until now they were merely named as dependants on their male guardians' cards.

ECONOMIST: Saudi women

If it does, his 300 black employees and their 1, 500 dependants face destitution.

ECONOMIST: Zimbabwe��s non-farmers

The cut in the Palestinian security forces will mean laying off 12, 000 men, with grave impact on their tens of thousands of dependants.

ECONOMIST: Palestinians

Only postgraduate students or those sponsored by their governments will henceforward be allowed to bring dependants.

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New Zealand has recently moved towards such a system: patients get points for such things as their operation's chances of success, the number of dependants affected by the patient's illness, and the time they have already waited.

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It is not just staff, but spouses, dependants and even, on occasion, in-laws who might find their financial dealings under scrutiny.

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