The last thing any traveler can think of is being kidnapped upon arrival at the airport. Yet, there have been complaints lately that foreign workers have been disappearing immediately upon arrival in the Kingdom. It is alleged that unidentified people stalk foreign workers sitting in the arrival lounge, present themselves as their sponsors and whisk the oblivious worker away! One of these human traffickers told me that farmers and cattle/camel breeders who do not want to go through the complications of obtaining visas, arrange for a worker to be brought to them from the airport. They take advantage of the fact that these workers do not speak Arabic and do not know who their real sponsor is and often rent them out to prospective employers in exchange for a large sum of money. The trafficker further said the workers are not paid their salaries and instead told they are being saved for them. After being exploited for many years, the traffickers eventually dump them in a remote location without paying them a single riyal. We can easily stop this trade in humans if we follow the system being applied in Dubai where foreigners only work for citizens who have requested their service. Payments of salaries and money remittances are done through the proper banking channels and the Emirati government makes sure the rights of both employers and employees are upheld. If we have a similar system in the Kingdom, no one will ever dare go to the airport to kidnap someone.
