Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Young job seekers from India and other south Asian countries who fall prey to fraudulent recruitment practices back home face an appallingly stressful ordeal after arriving in the Kingdom for employment.

These gullible youths find out the reality of the nature of their work visas only after landing in the Kingdom.

There have been increasing cases of youths who are assured of regular, skilled or semi-skilled jobs, are being recruited and brought into the Kingdom on visas for domestic drivers. These men are then forced to work in construction, hospitality and other sectors in violation of the country's employment regulations.

The tragic death of an Indian youth in Qassim province recently highlighted an emerging trend in fraudulent employment practices in the country. Noushad Abdul Jabbar, a 32-year-old Keralite, was recruited as a shovel operator for a contracting company and was working accordingly.

However, his visa was neither for a shovel operator nor for the contracting firm that actually employed him. According to his visa details, Abdul Jabbar was recruited as a private driver for a family.

He died last week when his shovel overturned and fell into a large trench at the construction site of a new football ground in Onaiza. His body has been kept at King Saud Hospital in the city pending the completion of forensic procedures.

The young Keralite had been working for more than a year with the same employer as shovel operator though his visa stated that he was a private driver.

In a similar case, Harikesh Yadav, a native of Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, was hired to work as a driver in a business firm but he was issued a family driver visa and was later forced to drive a shovel for a contracting firm.

Yadav, 26, was the only son in the family and he died while on job in Badaya near Buraidah within 10 days of his arrival in the Kingdom. After hectic efforts by social workers, his body was repatriated back home following a long delay.

His sponsor informed the authorities that Yadav was very much a private driver but had taken the shovel to the road on his own and met with the accident that killed him.

Khaja Nayeemuddin of Hyderabad, who came to work as private driver for a physically challenged person in Buraidah, was surprised to find a car rented in his name and it accumulating traffic fines amounting to over SR22,000 within a short period.

Several youths hailing from Uttar Pradesh in India and working in hotels in the southern Saudi province of Asir want to return home as they came to the Kingdom to work as family drivers and not hotel employees.

There has been a surge in issuance of visas for domestic workers since the introduction of Nitaqat system and the increase in the annual fee for the renewal of residency cards for employees in the private sector. Also many expatriates have been falling wrong side of the law for working in the private sector while actually holding domestic sector visas, which is significantly less in terms of cost compared with that of the business sector.

The latest figure by the Ministry of Labor shows that 221,128 visas were issued for domestic workers in the first quarter of 2018. This represents 64 percent of the total number of work visas issued.

There has been a tremendous increase in requests for domestic workers including private drivers over the last few years. The figure surged from 847,927 in 2014 to 1.9 million in 2015 and it continued to increase further.

The online system for work visas has simplified the visa application process.