JEDDAH, 4 November — The foreign labor recruitment office for the Makkah region has stopped accepting applications for visas in compliance with the order of Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, authorizing the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs as the sole agency to issue work visas, Al-Madinah reported yesterday.

The Interior Ministry’s foreign labor recruitment office has sent all new visa applicants to the Labor Office, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. But their applications were turned down at the Labor office on the ground that it did not receive any instruction in this regard. This situation has confused the local people causing them a lot of difficulties, particularly to those who are in need of domestic servants as the holy month of Ramadan is just round the corner. Private recruitment agencies and the public have urge the authorities to take immediate steps to end the deadlock by either directing the Labor Office to take up the responsibility of issuing visas or allowing the recruitment office to continue issuing visas until the Labor Office is fully geared to take on the new role.

The recruitment office stopped the processing of 50 applications on Saturday alone, according to a source.

In a cable to Interior Minister Prince Naif last week, the crown prince ordered that only the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry would be responsible for the recruitment of foreign workers, thus withdrawing the responsibility from the Interior Ministry.

Khaled Al-Rasheed, a Saudi who is in dire need of domestic help, said that he was surprised to learn from the recruitment office at Jeddah on Wednesday that processing of his application for visas was stopped because it was to be done at the Labor Office. When he went to the Labor office he found the office busy with some other work.

Saad Al-Harbi, another citizen who wanted a house driver, was told at the labor recruitment office that it would not accept his application as the Labor office was the competent authority to issue the visa. However, his application was not accepted at the Labor office, either.

The officials at the office told him that they had not received any orders in this regard.