Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH: The Kingdom has experienced a number of problems with the recruitment of domestic workers in the country, including those who are poorly trained or run away from their sponsors. There are an estimated nine million domestic workers in the Kingdom, forming 15 percent of the country's expatriate population, but unofficial statistics estimate their numbers to be much more. According to specialists, in 2009, 56,000 Indonesian workers escaped from their sponsors causing losses of over SR420 million. The following year, this figure dropped to 10,000 cases after a reduction in recruitment from Indonesia. Workers from the Philippines occupy second position in terms of runaway workers while Africans of different nationalities occupy third position. Ethiopian workers form the highest percentage among African workers. Those with the lowest escape rates are workers from South Asia, including Nepal, India and Vietnam. This is because there is less female recruitment from those countries, experts said. Poorly trained workers Freud Shihabuddin, owner of a recruitment office in Jakarta, said in the '80s there was no problems because many workers wanted to work in the Kingdom for financial and religious reasons. He said he started to have problems a decade later when many of the better-educated and skilled domestic workers were recruited from the cities to work in Japan, Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong. “The situation continued for about si, seven years when workers became scarce and with the increase in the numbers of manpower export unions. There were no longer controls. If you didn't like one union, you could move to another one and export workers through them. This resulted in some people exporting poor quality workers thus harming the reputation of Indonesian workers.” Zain Al-Abideen Bafaqih, owner of a recruitment office, said brokers started asking for more commission from about the year 2000 for workers from rural areas and villages. They acted as middlemen between the families and recruitment offices and their greed motivated them to raise the prices. Brokers recruited many unsuitable workers, including those with psychiatric problems, criminals records or other problems, he said.. 1,000 brokers Didan Shihabuddin Bukhari, owner of a company exporting workers to the Kingdom, blames brokers for financial losses in Indonesia and for pushing Saudi Arabia to place a ban on recruitment. Bukhari said the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower should stop violations and reorganize the labor-export market so his country's workers will once again be accepted in the Kingdom. Greater government control would also cut out over 1,000 brokers dealing with nearly 300 offices in Indonesia who are harming the country's labor market. He said Indonesian workers in the Kingdom send home $10 billion annually and provide for some five million families throughout the country. Bukhari said there should also be regulations to control recruitment from villages in Indonesia. Brokers living in these villages look for women interested in working abroad and then convince them and their families that she can work in the Kingdom, perform Haj and Umrah and provide a decent life for her family. Brokers use all these means to convince female workers so they can get the commission of more than $800 for each female worker, Bukhari said. This commission increases and the Saudi side's willingness to pay have resulted in many brokers recruiting workers without considering their physical and mental health or their morals. __
