DAMMAM — A number of recruitment offices in Bahrain have started making huge financial gains from sending Indonesian maids to Saudi Arabia, Makkah daily reported on Sunday. The report said the Bahraini offices recruit Indonesian maids for interested Saudi families under a two-year contract and a monthly salary of SR900. According to the report, recruiting an Indonesian maid from a recruitment office in Bahrain costs a Saudi family about SR61,600. "This has created a flourishing market in Bahrain to provide Saudi families with Indonesian housemaids," the report said. Under the arrangement, the Bahraini recruitment office will release the Indonesian maid immediately upon her arrival to a Saudi beneficiary on a two-year contract. A Bahraini broker said the preference of Saudi families for Indonesian maids has increased the cost of recruiting them to Bahrain to about SR40,000. "We will relay the housemaids to the Saudis at a cost of more than SR60,000," she said. The woman, who did not want to be identified, said most of the recruitment requests for Indonesian maids that Bahraini recruitment offices receive are from Saudi families. "The Saudi customer does not need to come personally to Bahrain. We will complete all procedures for him and send the maid to him right in his country," she said while adding that Saudi employers may send a representative to the Bahraini recruitment office to renew the work visa of a maid without the need to bring her to Bahrain. Meanwhile, a source at the Saudi National Recruitment Committee said they were not responsible for foreign manpower recruited through other countries. He said if Saudi employers accept the high cost of recruiting foreign manpower through Bahrain, then that is the employers' responsibility to make all necessary arrangements.
