Suad Al-Shamrani Okaz/Saudi Gazette RIYADH — The responsibility for recruiting expatriate workers should be shifted from the Ministry of Labor to the Ministry of Interior, according to a number of Shoura Council members. The members made this demand during the Council's 49th meeting on Monday. Shoura Council member Ali Al-Wizrah said the Ministry of Labor is not being fair to sponsors. There are 15 million expatriates in the Kingdom and 50,000 work visas are issued every day, he said. “Have we looked at the crime rate in our country and correlated it with the number of expatriates? For some reason, the sponsor always pays the price for any mishap caused by the expatriate,” said Al-Wizrah. Shoura Council member Mahmoud Al-Bidewi said the recruitment of expat workers entails security related issues, and not just labor laws and rights. Another member Sultan Al-Sultan said the Ministry of Labor is not looking into the criminal record of expatriates before their recruitment. It is also not ensuring the authenticity of their documents. Mishaal Al-Silmy, another Shoura member, said the Ministry of Labor had signed nine agreements with different Asian and African countries to protect workers' rights. “However, as sponsors, we did not get any benefit from the agreements. The Ministry of Labor signed an agreement with Bangladesh five months ago but we only have recruited 300 housemaids since then. This did not solve the housemaids crisis,” said Al-Silmy.
