Authorities have so far failed to find a drastic solution to the protracted recruitment problem. Things have become more complicated with people having vested interests exploiting the need for domestic help by charging exorbitant rates and making unjustified delays. Let's compare our situation with neighboring GCC countries. A friend of mine told me that the recruitment of a Filipino maid in Qatar does not cost more than SR8,000 and it would be done in 45 days and the maid is available on a monthly salary of not more than SR1,500. The root cause of the problem, as I understand, is the challenge posed by two groups of recruitment companies in the market. One group operates its offices legally with the blessing and support of the Labor Ministry and works under the shade of the National Recruitment Committee. The ministry has offered to provide all facilities including required number of visas to the licensed private recruitment companies, which has raised the ire of the second group. The second group, which is not in good terms with recruitment companies, can be categorized into two:one operating legally and at the same time wanting to have some kind of independence guaranteed by law governing free enterprise and will not bow to the ministry. Investors in this category believe that the ministry established and supported recruitment companies in order to monopolize the market, and they base their argument on the facilities the ministry has offered to the recruitment companies in violation of free enterprise. The second category of this group actually benefits from the chaos in the market. They run recruitment offices on the basis of illegal cover-up business with expatriates running the show. They operate under the license of others, paying SR1 million to SR2 million. These offices employ expatriates from countries that export maids. In my opinion these illegal offices are the crux of the problem as they have undermined the Kingdom's recruitment system and tarnished its image among manpower exporting countries. This may be a reaction to the formation of recruitment companies as they wanted to grab part of the market share because of its attractive benefits. They were trying to undermine official endeavors to organize the market by creating artificial problems. This has enabled manpower exporting countries to exploit the situation and negotiate with the Kingdom to realize their interests and charge high recruitment rates, thus negatively affecting Saudi employers. The ministry's initiative to establish powerful recruitment companies by bringing together small licensed offices has not successful, even though the ministry had given them the necessary support and legal backing. What was the benefit of setting up such companies, except legalizing their monopoly and raising prices? How can the ministry justify the establishment of more such firms?
