Saudis complain of huge losses from escaped workers

By DIANA AL-JASSEM
Published: Dec 16, 2011

JEDDAH: Expatriate workers in the Kingdom find it very easy to escape from their sponsors — either a person or a company — without losing money.

Despite the difficulties that Saudi citizens and companies face to import workers in addition to the money they pay for visas — SR7,000 or more per worker — Saudi Arabia does not have a strict law to protect the rights of the citizen or company when the worker escapes. Economists estimate that Saudi Arabia loses SR38 million annually on escaped workers.

Arab News spoke to lawyers and officials in the Ministry of Interior, who confirmed that the government had nothing to do with escaped workers apart from deporting them. They also confirmed that the citizen is the only loser in such cases.

“It is common these days to hear about escaped workers, maids and drivers. They sometimes escape from their sponsor while looking for higher payment and better treatment,” said Abdulrahman Al-Jehani, head assistant of the recruitment department in the ministry.

The government duty, in this case, is to arrest the escaped worker and deport him or her, said Al-Jehani.

He added that workers sometimes escaped because of bad treatment or because they had not been paid their salary on time, but “workers should know that escaping is not the solution for them.”

According to Al-Jehani, it was the Kingdom’s rule to deport those working with no passport, no iqama (residence permit), or with someone other than their original sponsor.

Many citizens complain about the high losses they run into when they import a worker and the Ministry of Interior subsequently deports him or her.

“We pay from SR5,000 to SR10,000 to import a maid or driver with a contract that defines eight working hours and a salary of SR800. Some workers accept this contract and spend a few months with their sponsor, but once they get the opportunity to escape, they do so,” said Abdulaziz Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi teacher who recruited a maid and driver from Indonesia two years ago.

Raeda Bahmishan, Saudi owner of a beauty salon in Jeddah, confirmed that a large number of workers she brought from Philippines escaped after they had cost her SR20,000.

“In the past, it was much easier to bring workers from East Asia, and Saudi women actually favor them. I recruited them with a salary of SR4,000, but as a result of the tough competition between beauty salons, they escaped to work in newly established beauty centers with a SR500 salary increase,” she said. Huge losses, she added, forced her to hire Saudi workers for SR2,500 a month, “although customers prefer Asians.”

Abdullah Murad, a Saudi lawyer and member of the lawyers’ committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, confirmed that many cases involving Saudis and expat workers were in courts, but that such cases took long years.

“Clashes are on the rise between worker and sponsor. Some workers prefer to refuge to court, while most expat workers prefer to escape and search for other work opportunities,” he said.

“When the worker escapes, Murad added, he wastes his opportunity to get his right. In this case, the worker loses his job and iqama and risks being arrested at any time.”

Murad confirmed that there was no rule to give the citizen any rights when his worker escaped.

Studies released by Asharqia Chamber show that most escaped workers are from East Asia, constituting some 62.2 percent. It also shows that Arab escaped workers are estimated at 35 percent, most of them Egyptians. The third highest amount of escaped workers is from Bangladesh, an estimated 27.7 percent. These nationalities are followed by Pakistanis with 14.4 percent, Indians constituting 12.1 percent, Filipinos with 2.1 percent, and Sri Lankans with 1.6 percent.