Adel Fakeih, Saudi Ministry of Labor, has let loose a fox in the hen house. According to this Arab News report, the Minister—in less than felicitous terms—said that the country will be instituting new laws and regulations to ease unskilled foreign labor out of the country. The hope is that they will be replaced by Saudi nationals, under the aegis of the new Saudization plan known as Nitaqat.
As one might imagine, this statement has many foreign workers in a tizzy, not knowing how they will be affected. And, as one might also imagine, the devil is in the details. How, exactly, will ‘unskilled labor’ be defined? If it is those who lugs concrete and stone around construction sites, dig holes and fill them in, are there really Saudis lining up to replace them? Salary and living conditions, as one of the many commenters to the newspaper article note, are not exactly those to which young Saudis aspire.
I don’t think there’s any question that the government and society are realizing that they’re paying an awful lot of money to others to do work that might be done by Saudis. There’s not doubt that the country is facing a massive unemployment problem. There’s also no question that these foreign workers have done much to make Saudi Arabia a better place to live and work.
The Minister, at least as reported here, did not discuss any details or timelines. Without that information, it’s really hard to see just what he meant. It’s not hard, though, to find portents of discomfort for foreign workers.
Ministry drawing up rules to phase out unskilled foreigners
ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: The Labor Ministry is working on new rules and regulations aimed at phasing out unskilled foreign workers from the Kingdom so as to replace them with Saudis, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper quoted Labor Minister Adel Fakeih as saying on Saturday.
The minister made the statements in a speech at the graduation ceremony of the eighth batch of the Saudi-Japanese Automobile High Institute (SJAHI) in Jeddah. Ali Al-Ghafees, governor of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, read out the minister’s speech on his behalf.
“It is obvious that the unskilled foreign labor has invaded the country and are being detrimental to the economy of the country and the citizens,” the minister said.
The announcement came as the Saudi authorities are making serious efforts to nationalize the job market by strictly enforcing the Saudization regulations in the private sector.
Fakeih pointed out that it was the responsibility of the ministry to get rid of these unskilled laborers through codification of laws and regulations.
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June:27:2011 - 11:15
Adel Fakieh continues to impress me. When I worked with him when he was municipal mayor of Jeddah, he always struck me as a trailblazer. I hope corruption and bureaucracy don’t weigh him down.
June:27:2011 - 13:59
In the meantime, those who have been in the country more than 6 years are scrambling for paperwork. Papers that used to cost only 1 or 2 thousand riyals in bribes are now costing SAR 10,000. The new regulations are seen by some as a way to take more of the guest workers’ money and keep it in Saudi in the form of bribes, but what can they do? They have to have the papers, they look to finance it from the food budget.
June:27:2011 - 15:20
From the food budget and from loan sharks.
June:28:2011 - 04:14
Adel Alfeqeeh is the first ever Saudi minister whose wife gave a statement to media,in that he is impressive and progressive man, it really proves that behind every impressive man there is an impressive woman.
What he says about(foreign labor has invaded the country and are being detrimental to etc) actually they came to the country with work permits issued by his ministry to Saudis who only have firms on papers,that means do not have real firms,they apply for visas to sell theses visas for Saudi riyals 11000 – 16000 depending on the country they were issued to,and then they take monthly 300-500 riyals from these people, and some of those who come on these visas bring money from home or work here and collect some money and start small to medium scale business under their sponsors names and pay certain amount for that too as agreed.
As for limiting the stay of foreign worker to six years, it is very impractical idea as in some places a worker at least needs a couple of years to perfect his job,one can not keep training people to give them up after that, to train other ones again, as there is not special vocational schools for everything,I think this six years rubbish is meant to fail,a lot of people are worried socially those who have well-established their lives here and forgot about homeland and whose work permits are about to expire , it is very possible that these new regulations might claim a lot of victims before eventually it is given the lethal injection,but what comes from Allah almighty is always good he created these people he will feed them, they should have faith and believe in it and not panic it is just the fear from the unknown.
June:28:2011 - 08:12
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