With regard to the article “Sponsors holding back workers' IDs” (Nov. 30), if employees are treated well, they will not run away. If you pay them a good wage and treat them with respect, you will keep them. Employers who treat staff badly, abuse them (physically or mentally), withhold pay and benefits, or pay paltry wages should not expect their staff to be loyal. The runaway workers are the victims here, not the Saudi sponsors. Scotty, Online response II. Sponsors seem to be concerned with runaway workers, but not with their own behavior as employers. Those who say that housemaids just come here to steal and run away are talking total rubbish. Sponsors must respect the international laws of humanity and behave properly with their employees and also treat them like human beings. If they do, they will find them loyal and respectful. Not every sponsor and every expat is an angel, but workers need to be treated like human beings and given their rights. Ayaz, Online response III. If there is any proof needed to show that a type of slavery exists in Saudi Arabia, one only has to read this article. I could not believe what I was reading. Employees “escaping”, “runaway status”, “could not travel outside the country without consent of the employer”? Are you people serious? This is the language used to describe slave and master relationships! Fana, Online response IV. In this article, people are quoted as saying that expatriate drivers escape or run away, but no one says why they do so. Workers who want to work abroad sign a contract before coming here and then when they get here, they discover that the contract and the work and the facilities they were promised are not the same as in the contract that they have signed! Ershadul Bari, Online response V. All of those who express views of expats stealing and running away have warped minds. In the UAE, expats have their passports with them and they do not require exit - re-entry visas. So why is it that expats do not run away in the UAE? Expats have come to the Kingdom to earn a living and if the employer is good they will never run away. Aqil, Online response VI. Having won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia should spearhead a campaign in the entire GCC region to put an end to the sponsorship system in order to eliminate all the negative issues arising from it. But the Kingdom must start in its own backyard first. Joey, Online response VII. Workers usually abandon those sponsors who are abusive or do not fulfill the conditions of the work contract. And most workers run away without any proof of identity (iqama or passport). Hence the discussion of whether to give them their passports (which are actually the property of their countries as mentioned in the passports) is a futile one. International laws are violated and if there is an emergency, the worker cannot travel immediately because many times, sponsors are not present to provide the passport and apply for an exit-reentry visa. Dr. Wasim Ahmed, Online response
