The National Recruitment Committee has given authorities a list of 15 recruitment companies that did not comply with the new agreement between officials in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia specifying recruitment charges for female Indonesian domestic helpers, an official said here Sunday. Saad Al-Baddah, chairman of the National Recruitment Committee, said his organization was informed about the violations, including payment of money to brokers and middlemen “in violation of the agreement.” He pointed out that the National Recruitment Committee immediately verified these actions and referred them to the authorities. The official said the National Recruitment Committee is using all legal means to safeguard the rights of citizens, workers and recruitment offices. The National Recruitment Committee has specified that the fee for recruitment from Indonesia is SR6,000, with SR4,200 going to Indonesian recruiters and the rest going to their Saudi counterparts. Sources said some recruitment offices have refused to respond to the demand by the National Recruitment Committee, an affiliate of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce, that they sign an agreement to set the recruitment fee at SR6,000. “What we were fearing was that the Indonesian side might not comply, but we were surprised that some Saudi recruitment offices were working hard to undermine the agreement. These offices said they did not want to sign the agreement because it has caused a six-month delay in workers coming to the Kingdom” a source said. Sources said the delays are caused not by the new fee, but by high charges demanded in Indonesia because of the fasting month of Ramadan. A source called on Saudi recruitment offices “to allow the national interest to outweigh their personal interests. The agreement is in the interest of the Saudi citizens first and last and this is the objective that led the National Recruitment Committee to take this action.”
