Al-Madinah Labor Minister Dr. Mufrej Al-Haqbani said that creating job opportunities for women in the private sector might require a miracle. Does that mean the ministry cannot help solve the problem of women's employment? I think the real questions should be as follows: Has the ministry created job opportunities for young people in the labor market? Has it solved the recruitment problems and other problems related to expatriate workers? Or do these issues need miracles as well? The reality on the ground shows that the ministry has not created a work environment that is suitable for young Saudi men and women. Moreover, it has not developed the market to make it more attractive and ready to absorb hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions, of unemployed Saudi men and women. The ministry was expected to coordinate with concerned authorities, such as the ministries of finance, municipal and rural affairs, planning and economics, and commerce and industry, to improve the private sector and transform it into an environment that is attractive to Saudi male and female job seekers. We expected the ministry, since it supervises training programs, to have extensive and intensive programs that would make men and women qualified to fill vacancies in the private sector in financial, management and technological jobs. We should have national businesses which can grow and create job opportunities for our young men and women. However, the ministry has not so far been able to deal with labor cases, especially those related to disputes and to workers who have run away from their sponsors. It has also not been able to deal with cases of tasattur (the illegal understanding whereby Saudis permit foreigners to manage businesses in their names in return for a stake in the profits). Our labor market is completely chaotic because there is so much tasattur. I recently read an article by a colleague of mine in which he shed light on how some Saudi sponsors force their expatriate workers to pay them a certain amount every month or every year. If the poor expatriate worker does not pay, the sponsor will threaten to file a false report accusing the worker of having run away and will have him arrested and deported. If the expatriate worker agrees to pay the money, the sponsor promises not to file the false report. Clearly, we need miracles to solve problems relating to recruitment and expatriate workers.
