The National Committee for Recruitment from Abroad at the Saudi Chambers Council approved on Sunday new fee regulations for the recruitment of Indonesian workers. Committee Chairman Saad Al-Baddah said that total recruitment fees for Indonesian domestic workers would not exceed the sum of SR8,000, comprised of SR6,000 plus visa fees of SR2,000. “The new fee will be in place by the beginning of Ramadan,” Al-Baddah said. The move follows a recent visit by the committee members to Jakarta where they met representatives of Indonesian labor unions to agree on a fee. According to Al-Baddah, the Saudi embassy in Jakarta will now issue new registration cards for all Indonesian offices to commit to the measure, while Saudi recruitment offices will also have to re-register at the embassy and express compliance. The regulations seek to prevent unwarranted rises in fees, and Al-Baddah appealed to national offices to continue working to reduce fees further. Speaking at a meeting with recruitment offices, he praised the position of offices over continuous rises and their previous demands for a subsequent halt to recruitment from Indonesia. “This shows that they put people's interests first and their own second,” Al-Baddah said. The total cost of recruiting domestic workers from Indonesia has for last six months varied between SR9,500 and SR10,000.
