JEDDAH, 1 June — There is no official ban by the government of India on recruitment of its nationals as maids in Saudi Arabia, according to Consul General Syed Akbaruddin. “There is a misconception that India has banned maids from working here. It surfaced over a period of time as those wanting to employ maids from India have to get their documentation preattested at the embassy or consulate here before proceeding to India for recruitment. In fact, this procedure was followed for all labor categories in the past, but since 1998 this is mandatory only for the recruitment of maids,” he said.

According to him, there is almost no demand for Indian maids in the Kingdom. “Mostly Saudi or Yemeni families having linkages with India and identifying particular individuals for employment as maids they have been forwarding requests. But even such requests are few, only about 25 to 30 a year,” Akbaruddin said, adding that since he assumed charge in August last year only 10 to 15 requests for maids were received from families here. “The preattestation of documents is made mandatory in the interest of both employers and employees. The documents contain information like age, background and antecedents of the maid concerned, as well as the minimum wage to be paid,” he added. The consul general was stating the position when asked to comment on a report in Al-Eqtisadiah that the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs had ordered the labor import offices not to issue visas to Indian housemaids following the Indian government’s instructions to its airport authorities to prevent maids from leaving the country. The report quoted Ahmad Al-Mansour, undersecretary at the Ministry of Labor, as saying that the Indian government’s decision would adversely affect the interests of several Saudis currently on a tour of India to recruit maids. “The ban has forced the Saudi consulate in Bombay to issue notices to the Saudi and Indian agencies to terminate the visas already issued for maids,” the report added.

Most of the maids working in the Kingdom are hired from Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Africa.