JEDDAH — As many as 150 recruitment offices in Ethiopia are gearing up to send about 8,000 housemaids to the Kingdom within a maximum time of a month, local daily Al-Madina reported on Sunday quoting an official source at the Ethiopian consulate general in Jeddah. The unidentified source said the cost of recruiting a housemaid from Ethiopia will range between SR7,000 and SR8,000 and added that the housemaid will be paid a monthly salary of SR1,000. He said after activating Musanid e-portal of the Saudi ministry of labor and social development, all that the Ethiopian recruitment offices will have to do now is documenting the contracts electronically, issuing medical and security certificates, checking the validity of the passport and completing the procedures at the Saudi embassy. "All these procedures should be completed within four weeks after which the Ethiopian maids will be arriving in the Kingdom," he said. The source expected the arrival of the Ethiopian housemaids in the Kingdom to boost the recruitment market. He said the Ethiopian housemaids have sufficient experience in working in the Kingdom, they are hard working, can work under pressure and will be trained for a month before departure to the Kingdom on the Saudi customs and traditions. Abdullah Al-Khaldi, a Saudi recruitment company official, said the arrival of the Ethiopian housemaids will reduce the cost of recruitment of the housemaids by about 35 percent which will be in favor of the Saudi employers. According to official statistics, there are about 2.4 million house helps in the Kingdom of whom about 66 percent are housemaids. They are paid monthly salaries of SR800 and SR1,200.
