Mahmoud Ahmad

 

The practice of sponsors holding the passports of their employees in lieu of their work permits is not only illegal, but also downright inhumane. Their countries give them passports as a form of identity and the only recognized travel document. Without a passport the person loses the right to travel — any place, anytime.



Those passports are kept by employers as a form of insurance that the employees stay in one place, but this practice is very feudal. Only with trust and clear measures can an employer retain their employees and not by resorting to such practices. And, in any case, with the growing emphasis on free market and Saudization, the employees would prefer to stay even if they are handed back their passports.



In my opinion, the Saudi sponsor or the sponsoring company should not hold the passports of their employees. I believe it is enshrined in the Saudi law that such practices are illegal, yet it is still practiced by many Saudi sponsors. There are two things I want to address here. The first one is that the passport is the property of the holder. The second, blackmailing expatriates to extort money using their passport should be considered a crime. With this law not applied, such illegal practices against the poor expatriates still exists.



Weeks ago, this sad story really tugged at my heart. I came a cross a group of Pakistani workers who were trying to take advantage of the grace period offered by the Kingdom to rectify their statuses. To start the procedures they had to get their passports from their sponsor to change sponsorship to another company.



The Saudi sponsor kept stalling and providing them false promises until finally he decided not to give them their passports. If he had handed over their passport, their procedures would have been easy, instead of going through a circuitous route by getting their consulate in Jeddah to issue a new passport. After the initial waste of time that saw them get their new passports late, some missed the opportunity to get their status rectified while some lost the promised jobs as the new sponsor found an alternative. An opportunity lost because of the dilly-dallying by the sponsor.



What is more painful is that some Saudi sponsors demand money to release the passport to their workers. This is similar to a gang of kidnappers holding a hostage and demanding a ransom to release the hostage.



I remember the story of an Egyptian worker who faced a similar situation wherein his sponsor refused to hand over his passport and instead used his passport to blackmail him. He demanded SR2,000 to release it. When I asked him why he did not complain to police, he smiled and told me "what will the police do, arrest the sponsor? You must be joking".



Another incident involving a Sudanese expatriate whose passport was held by his sponsor for more than 11 years was more tragic. The poor man could not travel back home to attend his father's funeral and years after he also could not attend his brother's funeral in Sudan because of his sponsor. When the sponsor failed to get money from him, he simply returned it to the consulate in Jeddah.



What is the law against such practices and why are the police not interfering and helping those who suffer at the hands of their blackmailing sponsors? Passports are the property of the holder and the country where the expatriate came from. The Saudi sponsor or the company sponsoring the worker can only take a photocopy of the passport and release the original passport to the holder.



I do not know why Saudi sponsors want to hold on to their employee's passport when they know that the workers cannot use it because they are tied down by the exit-entry visa? Of course, this excludes the expatriates who choose to give their passports to their sponsors or companies for safekeeping.



Now let us imagine, if this practice is enforced against Saudis working abroad, we would be the first one to cry out, call it a human rights violation and seek justice against such practice. We would not hesitate to call this practice uncivilized and the behavior of such sponsors as an act from the dark ages.



It is high time that a special division at the passport department and police be established to arrest these abusive sponsors who are only projecting a bad image of our country by blackmailing poor expatriates. This special task force should coordinate with foreign consulates to report wrongdoings by sponsors and companies. The special force should act quickly by handing out stiff  penalties.



It will take just one or two companies or sponsors to by penalized and their pictures published in papers (naming and shaming) for the rest of bad sponsors to learn that the country will not tolerate such practices anymore. Expatriates should also come forward and report such practices to the authorities.



Officials should realize that such wrong practices will only embarrass the country internationally and I am sure that foreign countries will not tolerate such practices anymore.



I agree with what the Chairman of the National Labor Committee, Nedal Redwan, said to a local daily that though there is a law against keeping passports in the hands of the companies and sponsors it is not effective.



The law should be implemented with force. This matter should be taken seriously and sponsors who are abusing expatriates should be dealt with an iron fist.



– Mahmoud Ahmad can be contacted at [email protected]