Few takers for Bangladeshi male workers as visas open

The Ministry of Labor is set to start issuing visas for Bangladeshi workers from today, but many employers do not seem to be keen on hiring men from that country. Bad behavior is one of the reasons cited by them.
An employer this reporter spoke to expressed apprehension that he may end up hiring unskilled workers due to the absence of a clear mechanism to inspect their qualifications.
Several Bangladeshi workers have failed to create a good image among Saudis, as is evident from the reactions.
“I had a bad experience with a Bangladeshi who worked as a guard in my building in 2002. I was forced to make a final exit visa for him after receiving frequent complaints from residents. He was neglecting his duties, was rude and had created a lot of problems with the residents,” Abdullah Hashawan, a Saudi landlord, told Arab News,
“I will not recruit a Bangladeshi worker at my restaurant. I don’t like problems with my clients. I had recruited two Bangladeshi workers ten years ago who caused troubles with inspectors of the municipality,” Abdul Ruhman Shuqair, a Saudi owner of a restaurant, said.
Ahmed Nabil, a Saudi who runs a construction business, said he has changed all his Bangladeshi employees because they were slow and inefficient. "I also discovered that some of them were involved in theft of construction material."
Abdullah Habib, director of a human resource department of a private company, said a Bangladesh driver was sacked by the company because he was found using the car for his personal work.
Director of the media center of the Ministry of Labour, Tayseer Al-Mufrej, said: "The Musaned website provides a number of choices to employers. The website also offers the opportunity to evaluate Bangladeshi workers. This system will stimulate all recruitment offices to provide skillful workers to employers and raise the level of services.”
Al-Mufrej confirmed that the ministry will continue to play a supervisory role and will not tolerate any violation. "More than 337 recruitment offices and companies have published the details of Bangladeshi workers."
Hassan Othman, a member of the recruitment committee at Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that recruitment companies are careful to provide skillful workers from Bangladesh.