PERHAPS all laws and regulations should be developed in order to make them a guide on the proper methods to be followed in the workplace and when dealing with others, reducing and eliminating cases of exploitation, fraud and cheating. However, implementation of some of these laws leads to exploitation, trickery and deception, as if they have been developed to push those subjected to these rules into all these undesirable practices. These laws include the residency (iqama) law that makes it mandatory for all expatriates in the Kingdom to search for sponsors for their sons when they turn 21. This means the 21-year-old son of a foreigner must be qualified to take up a job under a new sponsor. The sponsorship of a foreigner is not like sponsoring an orphan. None of the Saudi agencies or citizens would shoulder the responsibility of sponsoring any foreigner and meet the subsequent financial burden except in cases where the foreigner is useful to them through their skills. Therefore, taking up sponsorship implies the foreigner should either be a laborer or driver or a financial consultant at the company or with the individual sponsor. Details such as names of the employee, sponsor and profession must be clearly stated in the iqama. This regulation does not consider the fact that most sons of expatriates who turn 21 are still students at universities and other institutes. This means that their parents must seek fake sponsors for their sons after paying a fixed amount of money or repeat the payment of money when renewing iqamas at regular intervals. The worst scenario is that one son who studies medicine has to carry the iqama of a laborer or another who is studying engineering has to carry an iqama stating that he is a driver. In both cases, they have to change their profession after they graduate. The ideal solution is that these sons should be left in the sponsorship of their fathers on condition that their sponsorship must be transferred to a Saudi firm or individual immediately after completion of their studies and when they are qualified to take up jobs. Their sponsor must be a real one under whom he should work for, instead of a fake one. The existing system leads to fraud, deception and exploitation. Moreover, it could be an instigator for the most dangerous of all these illegal practices.
