Thousands of foreign workers in limbo after amnesty ends

Expatriates shop at Balad in Jeddah in this file photo taken in 2010.

By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN | ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: If estimates of Asian and African embassies are to be believed, there are still between 100,000 and 150,000 illegal workers in Saudi Arabia, mainly “huroob” (runaway) cases not covered by the six-month general amnesty that ended recently.

Several embassies, which approached senior Saudi officials with request to include huroob cases in the amnesty, have no idea as how to deal with this new problem.

“Clearly the system of general amnesty announced by the Kingdom did not cover all categories of illegal workers,” said an African diplomat.

“The Jeddah-based Indonesian Consulate General could issue only 3,000 outpasses, mostly for Umrah overstayers,” said Didi Wahyudi, a consulate spokesperson.

“The number of travel documents issued from the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh was also not that high,” said spokesman Wishnu Krisnamurthi.

A number of illegal Indonesian workers were not entitled for the concessions because they were technically not covered under the amnesty.

“The number of Bangladeshi huroob offenders alone will exceed 5,000,” said a Bangladeshi Embassy official on the condition of anonymity.

“The total number of African workers, including Sudanese facing huroob charges or blacklisted because of some other violations, will be in the range of 15,000 to 25,000,” said Essam Al-Shafi, a Sudanese community leader.

Asked about the number of illegal Sudanese workers, Osama Mahjoob Hassan, counselor at the Sudanese Embassy, could not provide the exact number of the workers who benefited from the amnesty.

But, a number of workers were left stranded because of huroob or other categories of violations. Al-Shafi said that the amnesty directive by the Interior Ministry covered only those who arrived in the Kingdom on Haj, Umrah and visit visas and overstayed here.

Asked about outpasses issued by the Bangladesh Embassy, Haroonur Rashid, the embassy's labor counselor, said that about 17,000 travel documents were issued to Bangladeshis during the whole amnesty period.

In the case of Indian workers, “80 percent of those who applied for emergency travel certificates, were runaway workers not covered by the Saudi amnesty,” said a report quoting Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad. Ahmad said that he discussed the issue with Labor Minister Adel Fakieh during a recent meeting.

According to an estimate, the total number of illegal Indian workers ranged between 35,000 and 55,000 before the amnesty period. This is in addition to 1,200 Indian prisoners currently serving jail terms in the Kingdom.

The number of Indians awaiting trial is not known, as is the case with many other Asian and African nationals. “Undoubtedly, their number will be in thousands,” said an Asian community leader.

The Sri Lankan Embassy has issued only 80 emergency travel permits.

Irfan Shoukat, a spokesman of the Pakistan Embassy, said that more than 5,500 outpasses were issued by the embassy. A large number of Pakistani workers, who are facing huroob cases, were not allowed to leave the country without settling their disputes with employers. The Nepalese Embassy issued about 5,000 outpasses, said a spokesman. Of course, a number of Nepali workers are also involved in huroob cases.

Comments

MUHAMMAD ASIM RASHID

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it is brought to kindom's attention they should also think why there are so many cases of huroob in kindom.saudis kafeel have mostly harsh attitude to their employs.sometimes they do not give salaries to their employs .Sometimes they beat their employs. thats why many persons decide to run away from their employer. Kindom should think why a person run away from his sponsor even he spend thousands of money to come to saudis to earn. saudis need to be educated to understand that their employs are not their slaves.

BOYET A.

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I think most of these huroob would like to work again in ther Kingdom. If the Saudi gov't will issue them a working permit, they will be most grateful. They ran away from their employer because of strained working relationship, which they would have opted to resign had they been employeed in their own country. But there work contract would not allow them to resign from there work unless they pay for their own plane ticket home. And so, they are inside the Kingdom loitering unproductively. If they will be allowed to find work again, the government can earn income by charging them a certain fee for: the 1) working pass and; 2) deployment fee since the government will be acting as a big time recruitment and placement agency.

ZUBAIR AHMED ANWAR

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assal alaikum dear arab news may i thinks more experteis have huroob some kafeel and wakeel between any wrong then he giving huroob what can do experteis me also same problem i dont no my kafeel i now wakeel last 2 year ago i will go me wakeel i pay him 10500 saudi riyals he tell no come out huroob then he didnt back my money now he mobile is off what can i do

MUSHTAQ ALI K.

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Only solution to solve this problem in future is stop "KAFIL" system.

MMUB

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There is too many people in HUROOB why...??? is it expats mistake...??? due to greedy sponsers because sponsers just they want to earn from expats, I'm sure those people in HUROOB they are on FREE Visa.
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