Crackdown on illicit trade in domestic workers planned

RIYADH: The Ministry of Labor has announced plans to launch a crackdown on the illicit trade in domestic workers.
The announcement follows a meeting held by Labor Minister Mufrej Al-Haqabani with officials from security and other government departments.
Al-Haqabani said criminals were using various media to place advertisements for maids’ vacancies.
“Such dealings are unlawful because most of these maids have run away from various Saudi homes,” he told the media.
He urged citizens not to fall prey to these advertisements and should report them to the authorities. Media houses should also check these advertisements before publication, he said.
During the meeting, there was also a discussion on why domestic workers run away from their employers, with some arguing that criminals were enticing them to do so.
Gen. Osman bin Naser Al-Muhraj, chief of the public security department, and Ahmed bin Saleh Al-Humaidan, deputy labor minister, also took part in the talks.
Other participants included Abdullah Abu Thunyan, undersecretary for planning, development and information, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Hadlaq, public security director for field operations, and Col. Abdul Aziz Al-Hassan, director of the general department for combating cybercrimes in the public security department.
A total of 86,549 domestic workers had run away from their workplaces in 2014, according to the Labor Ministry’s annual report released recently. Forty percent of those were males.
During the year, 493,125 male workers and 354,802 female workers received visas.
The report said 104,466 visas were issued to government agencies, representing 68,530 males and 35,936 female workers. It said 1.57 million visas were issued in 2014, with 62,152 for seasonal workers.
During the same period, 531,000 workers were absconded from work, which included 43 percent in the country, and 53 percent who did not return to the Kingdom after leaving on re-entry visas.
There were also those who were simply insubordinate, the sources said.