Tariq A. Al-Maeena
A system that allows citizens or companies to bring expatriate workers to the Kingdom under their sponsorship and control is bound to have its flaws exposed when one party does not live up to an agreement or adhere to the terms of a contract. While there are rules that govern the relationship between employer and employee which are meant to protect the rights of both parties, unscrupulous employers or sponsors have taken advantage of a few gaps in the rules and have turned things to their advantage.
Usually the victims are from Asian and African countries and have little education and lack a full awareness of their rights in the host country. They are the ones who are mercilessly exploited by wicked sponsors.
Gul Nawaz, one such victim, is an Indian living in a coastal city of Saudi Arabia. In his frustrations with his sponsor, he had someone email me the following on his behalf:
“Dear sir, I could not find anybody near except your good self at the worst time of my life in the Kingdom. It started during the grace period given by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to regularize the status of employees. Many companies failed to process and make the necessary transfers of employees on questionable status to other potential employers on time because of the abnormally heavy workload at the passport departments throughout the country. While the passport office and labor court processing continued after the expiry of the grace period, my case was, unfortunately, not among them.
“My sponsor demanded and took SR 20,000 from me as a condition for giving me my passport and related papers for transfer. Once he had received the money, he filed a huroob (runaway) case against me and provided the authorities with my residency details without my knowledge.
“When my new would-be sponsor tried to process the transfer, he was told by the authorities that I was listed as a runaway and, therefore, was not eligible to transfer my services to a new sponsor. When I was told this, I immediately contacted the old sponsor. He asked me to pay more and to give him my passport in order to cancel the huroob issue. I did that and after receiving the money, he neither cancelled the huroob nor did he return my passport. Furthermore, he did not answer my telephone calls for a couple of days until he called me to demand that I pay more to get my passport back.
“I paid him again and as before he did not keep his word and disappeared. My iqama (residence permit) expired 16 months ago and I failed to get it renewed despite paying my sponsor everything I had and more that I borrowed from others. Today my status is that I have become illegal through no fault of my own.
“Dear sir, I cannot move anywhere and cannot work. I have been without work for a year. I have not been able to send money to my family for a long time. I am the only breadwinner in my family. I cannot earn anything in the Kingdom and have fallen deeply in debt. I have paid huge amounts to my sponsor and I have borrowed from many friends, slept hungry many nights and now I feel I have lost a huge amount of money and valuable time in my life.
“Being a practicing Muslim, I preferred to work in the Kingdom because I wanted to be near to the holy places and hoped for an opportunity for my family to visit. For a while, please, can you consider my situation? A practicing Muslim from India in the Kingdom without a passport, without money, no accommodation, helpless, with a ruthless sponsor, old bedridden loving mother, wife and three children back home crying not for money but because they want me to return home.
"Dear sir, my friend is going on an exit-only visa shortly and I have to vacate his room. I will face great problems. I am a graduate and in a critical situation which is not my fault. I want to go back to my country as soon as possible before I die because of losing my mind. Please, I am not seeking any monetary help but only help to return home at the earliest possible time so that I can see my family. They always cry whenever I call them. It has been three years since I last saw them.
"I have met dozens of my countrymen in the Indian consulate who have been stranded in the Kingdom for a long time and in similar situations. There must be a law in the Kingdom to protect us from such merciless sponsors. God would never allow anybody to destroy a settled family life. I cannot explain to you in words our families’ mental agony and financial loss. Can you please spare some minutes and dedicate a few lines to distressed workers who are eager to return home but are helpless and in very wretched conditions? Gul Nawaz”
It is important to have their story told. These people came here to earn an honest livelihood. Along the way, they fell prey to greedy sponsors and ended up in deep debt. They have hardly anyone to speak up for them. Their dream of bringing their family to the Kingdom for pilgrimage at the holy places has also been cruelly crushed, along with the pain of failure and the loss of faith in humanity.
— The author can be reached at talmaeena@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @talmaeena
