JEDDAH: Domestic workers are not being trained properly for the Saudi Arabian labor market. This is according to an official from a recruitment agency, a citizen and an Indonesian maid who is working in the Kingdom. They spoke to Saudi Gazette on Tuesday. The complaints also include claims that some workers have faked their age and health certificates and that some recruitment agencies are also involved in illegal practices. Abdulaghany Al-Otaiby, a Saudi resident, complained that an Indonesian housemaid he hired from an agency did not know anything about housework. She was also over the age that he wanted and did not speak any Arabic. “Suddenly, after two days, she decided to quit and said she wanted to leave the country as soon as possible because she did not like working here as a housemaid,” he said. “She didn't even know how to plug a lamp in a wall socket. She told me that she was not trained in her country to be a housemaid,” he said. Al-Otaiby said he also discovered that the woman was under the sponsorship of another citizen and had previously worked in Jizan. When she had refused to work in Jizan, the agency simply moved her to him without transferring her Iqama. “When I discovered that she was still under the sponsorship of a fellow Saudi I was shocked. I decided to take her to the agency, and they sent her to the Indonesian consulate in Jeddah,” he continued. She spent three months there. But then the agency called Al-Otaiby and asked him to pay a fine because he did not get an Iqama for her. Al-Otaiby said he did not transfer her Iqama because he did not want to employ her. He now wants the agency to provide him with another housemaid because he said he had returned the Indonesian woman to the agency within the stipulated three month trial period. He claimed he spent more than SR11,000 to employ her, but did not get any benefit. “Who is responsible for these agencies here? They are cheating Saudi residents and stealing their money,” he said. Joma'an Al-Zahrani, the manager of a recruitment agency, said that some workers have been found to have certain viruses and diseases. He also claimed that some agencies in Jakarta send laborers with fake documents and no training. “I have discovered that some agencies do not train the housemaids before they come to Saudi Arabia. Moreover, some of them come without official health certificates and when the sponsors check their health, they discover that they are sick,” he said. To check the situation in Indonesia, the agency has sent its agents to Jakarta to check on the laborers before they come to the Kingdom. “We have found that the training at schools is really weak and is only available in Jakarta,” he said. Noorcity, a housemaid working for a Saudi family in Jeddah, said that she was not trained before she came to the Kingdom. “Before I came to Jeddah, I was only trained in Jakarta to iron and wash clothes. They didn't provide any courses on the Arabic language or how to clean house,” she said. She said that during the training sessions in Jakarta, some of the workers did not understand the nature of the work they would do in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, some failed the final practical tests at the training center. “I have also seen some agents there give a license to a driver who didn't know how to drive a car, and sent him to work here,” she said. Al-Zahrani said that the training schools in Jakarta were considered below international standards. Last week, an official from Lombok Island in Indonesia called on Saudi Arabia to establish a training center in cooperation with their government to train Indonesian laborers about Saudi traditions and the Arabic language. Mokhlis M. Si, Head of Labor and Transmigration Affairs of West Nusantasa Tenggara province, said the training center would help to prevent unqualified workers from either escaping from their sponsors or returning home after a short period in the Kingdom. “This training center will help the workers understand the traditions of the Saudi people and improve communication,” said Si. He added that they have already finished building a training center which is being used to prepare workers for Malaysia. Si said that according to the latest statistics, more than 53,731 workers from his province were sent to work in overseas countries. Of the total, 20,800 are housemaids working in the Middle East and 19,480 are in Saudi Arabia. He added that some workers have complained that they were physically assaulted by their sponsors. He admitted that his office has received many complaints about workers who fake their age and health certificates, especially housemaids and drivers.
