The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has seen millions of expatriates come and go in the past five decades. Most have come as guest workers, following the oil boom in the mid 1970s, when the country embarked on a massive development push. For each guest worker or group of guest workers, there had to be a Saudi sponsor. This meant that the worker’s legal status was bound to the requirements and demands of the sponsor and he or she was not free to move to another company anywhere else in the country. While this arrangement suited most of the expatriates, there were others who were victimised by such an arrangement.
The sponsorship programme also led to some Saudis taking advantage of the system through the manipulation of their legitimate needs for workers. These Saudis would obtain block visas that sometimes numbered in the hundreds or thousands and would sell them to potential workers, primarily unskilled, from the East. The Saudis made their money and the workers who arrived on such a transaction set about to earn their pot of gold.
The paths of the two would only cross when residency permits had to be renewed and occasionally money was demanded from the Saudi sponsor for continued services. But the boom was on and the unskilled worker was earning far more than what he could have ever dreamt of in his or her own country and so the worker willingly paid a portion of his earnings to the sponsor.
When oil prices started deflating, these workers found their income shrinking. Yet the demands of their Saudi sponsors continued to increase. Every year, they had to pay the sponsor a certain portion of their limited earnings or risk being sent back to their country. And if they were defiant, then all the sponsor had to do was declare them as runaways or huroob — a status that would lead them to imprisonment and deportation.
The following is a story of one such worker who found himself tangled in the web of an unscrupulous sponsor. His case was brought to my attention by Ali Shah, a human rights activist. He brought up the case of an educated man who was a victim of his sponsor’s greed.
Shah told me that the individual came to him one night with a distressing issue. “He is on ‘huroob’. For the past two years his children have not been to school. For the past two years he has been working illegally as a private driver to make ends meet, and avoiding security checkpoints. For the past two years his life has been a living hell. His wife has lost hope and gone into depression. His children, who cannot get enrolled to any school without a legal residency status, simply while away their time watching television all day.
“His sponsor reported the worker to the authorities. He then offered to get his illegal status revoked if he paid him 10,000 Saudi riyals (Dh9,787). The man sent the money to the sponsor, but he disappeared, leaving the worker in the lurch.
“Last week, a man appeared from nowhere and told this desperate worker that he would solve his problem and get him transferred to a new sponsor. But the man told him that he was wanted by the police because his sponsor had reported that he had borrowed 50,000 Saudi riyals from him and did not return the money and had gone into hiding. In reality, the worker had never borrowed this amount and it was just the Saudi sponsor’s word against his.
‘Tricked again’
“The family was in a state of panic and was desperate for a solution. The good Samaritan said that he would discuss the matter with the sponsor to arrive at a solution. A few days later, he told the worker that the sponsor was willing to withdraw his complaint with the police and release him from all obligations if he paid 5,000 Saudi riyal. The victim paid that amount and an additional 10,000 Saudi riyal, following one more demand.
“Suspecting something was amiss, Ali, after hearing about the man’s ordeal, went to a senior police officer he knew, who told him that the police does not get involved in money matters between individuals. Such claims go to court and he doubted very much that a sponsor would go to court without any documentary evidence. Even if he did, the judge would summon both parties for a hearing.
“The victim was tricked again. So far, his expenses have reached 25,000 Saudi riyal. And his status is still illegal. If he is caught, he will be deported and black-listed, along with his family. This also means he cannot legally work anywhere. The family is barely surviving. What did he do to deserve this? What did his wife and children do to deserve this?”
The desperate worker asked Ali for advice.
“I told him to leave Saudi Arabia, be blacklisted and never return. He looked at me with a wry smile and asked: ‘After 30 years and penniless? Is this what I get for coming to live and work here?’ Ali could not manage a response and sat in silence.”
Well I have a response. Why is such a situation allowed to occur? Who are these sponsors, selling visas in the open market and getting rich at cost of hapless workers? Why have the authorities neglected the crimes generated against expatriates through visa trading and extortion? Holding workers in bondage and manipulating their lives and emotions for greed is no less than forcing one into slavery. It is immoral.
Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@talmaeena
