Mariam Nihal, Fatima Muhammad, and Syeda Amtul Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Millions of people living in the Kingdom welcomed King Abdullah's decision for extending the grace period for four months — until November 3 — enabling illegal foreign workers to regularize their status. The magnanimous decision came just a day before the amnesty ended on July 3. Thousands took to popular social media websites to praise King Abdullah for being generous in extending the amnesty. Sabah Noor, a 46-year-old Sri Lankan domestic worker, received the news at 11:00 am on Tuesday.
“This is the news everyone in Saudi Arabia has been waiting for. There are millions of people who are waiting for their turn to rectify their status. “I have been here since 6:00 am trying to get my fingerprints and registry. I am so happy and relieved. I have more time to rectify my family's situation. “I got to meet a lot of people who were facing the same problem even though we are from different countries. “We are a group of over 500 people hailing from Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia — all living in the same neighborhood facing the same problems. All we needed was time and thank God now we do,” said the teary-eyed Noor. Fahd Raeed, a 40-year-old Indian computer engineer living in Dammam, said: “My colleagues had tears in their eyes. All my Saudi friends are so happy for all the expatriate workers were going through a hard time to rectify their legal status. “So many people lost their jobs and main tasks of construction companies were put on hold. Even shortage of domestic helpers was a great cause of concern till yesterday. “But now the responsibility lies on expatriates to follow the rules of the land. We should respect and co-operate with the Saudi authorities. I want to thank everyone who contributed toward the cause.” Aman Atallah, a 39-year-old Indonesian driver, said: “I was so worried about the deadline as I only had one day to rectify my status and my papers are still not done. In Sha Allah by the grace of God who has allowed us more time, I should be able to manage and fix my situation. “I want to thank King Abdullah for giving us all a chance. All of us are worried about our families and children. “We spend our lives here because of the two holy cities and love for the country and its people. Some of us work very hard day and night to send money back to feed and educate our families. I am so relieved that I have another chance to get it right.” Sabiha Pasha, a 28-year-old Lebanese-American resident living in Jeddah said: “I am so glad this move came in. All of my friends and even their husbands are glad that our maids and drivers will be here during Ramadan. I mean all my Saudi friends were losing their sleep over maids leaving the country, especially during the festive month of Ramadan. Now we all have a chance to fix the situation so I hope and pray everyone here will sponsor their workers and let them lead a legitimate life of dignity while allowing their legal rights.” Sana Iqbal, a 43-year-old British consultant in Jeddah said: “This is such great news. Saudi Arabia always treats expatriates living in the Kingdom with kindness. We should not keep expecting humanitarian gestures from locals. But instead we should be grateful for another chance and rectify our situation as soon as possible. Thank you King Abdullah.” Indian national Md Raheem, who came as a house driver four months earlier, had failed to correct his status during the grace period. “I was very anxious as the deadline loomed, but now I am confident that I can complete my paper work because I have enough time.” Pakistani national Syed Dolat Ali Zahid said his status correction process is very close to being complete, but they still needed time to finalize everything. With the extension they are relieved. “We are praying for our beloved king from the bottom of our hearts. We pray for his long, healthy and prosperous life.” Business owners relieved as amnesty extended It is not only expatriates who were thrilled to read the news about the extension of the amnesty period, business owners shared the same joy and celebrated with zest. “I threw a party in my office. We are all going out later to celebrate the great move granted by the King,” said Salam AlQasim, a 32-year-old Saudi business entrepreneur. “I ordered Al-Baik for our team and called up many of my ex-employees to come join me later. I will bring back my team of forty people who left to rectify their status. My friends who own franchises and small restaurants in Jeddah and Riyadh are also doing the same. We lost more than 300 staff members. Now that we have till November we will make sure all employees are allowed to work with a legal status.” Altaf Ghassan, a 56-year-old Pakistani businessman living in Jeddah said: “This is a good news for locals and expatriates. The king made a wise decision by allowing workers enough time to rectify their illegal status. You can't solve a problem faced over decades over two months. God bless King Abdullah and we all thank him for his gracious decision.” Ibrahim Al-Marwani, an investor in materials and cloth business, said that they were able to rectify the status of only two out of the 12 workers who are working for his company and are not under its sponsorship. He said the extension of the amnesty period is just a relief, as they will be able to at least correct the condition of some more workers. “The ministry of labor did not actually start its work and provide us with the bylaws of amnesty except a month and 10 days after the announcement of the amnesty,” said Al-Marwani, adding that the delay in start has “shortened the period and left many unable to rectify status.” According to him, each employee who wants to rectify his/her status should at least have SR5,000 of which SR3,000 is given to the middle man while the remaining figure goes toward payment of government fee. Al-Marwani has to spend at least SR60,000 to legalize his workers who work under his sponsorship. Women still apprehensive of changing sponsor Those employing expatriate women are still unsure of what the extended amnesty can give them, as a number of male guardians are still hesitating in allowing their womenfolk to transfer their sponsorship. Zainab Zagzoug, owner of Barocco Design, told Saudi Gazette that she is still finding difficulty convincing female engineers to transfer their sponsorship to her company. “The transfer of female sponsorship and the reluctance of families to allow their daughters to transfer their sponsorship is still an obstacle.” Zagzoug was not able to transfer any of her female engineers during the last three months. With the extension of the amnesty she said she will give it a second try. “The whole instable condition during the last three months created a confusion at our office in Jeddah and we are afraid that it will affect the quality of our work,” she said, adding that she will continue working on convincing families to allow their daughters to transfer their sponsorship. Eyad Mashat, a member of the young businessmen committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, appreciated the extension of the amnesty. He said their expatriate employees work for different departments in their fashion retail company, which employs around 500 people. The amnesty, he said, can help them rectify the status of some 20 people working for them. Mashat also said that the rectification process is a huge financial burden. Two middlemen have been hired by his company to complete paperwork with the concerned government departments. As the amnesty neared its conclusion, they had to hire additional middlemen to help them with their work. The fees handed to middlemen to rectify the status of each worker ranges from SR3,000 to SR2,000 for each worker.
