JEDDAH, 14 February 2004 — The issue of labor visas to small firms having fewer than 10 employees and the transfer of sponsorship of foreigners are likely to be stopped. Exceptions will be made for those holding university degrees and having technical qualifications, Al-Watan reported yesterday.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Sajeeni, director general of the Passport Department, said however that his organization had not received any instructions to this effect. “We are still accepting applications for the transfer of sponsorship,” Al-Madinah quoted the general as saying.
The decision reportedly taken by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs comes as part of the government’s efforts to create more jobs for Saudis after unemployment rate among the Saudi nationals crossed 15 percent. Small firms account for 40 percent of companies and establishments in the Kingdom. The decision however allows small firms to borrow workers from manpower supply companies.
An official at the Labor Office in the Makkah region said they were still accepting applications for labor visas. “It seems that the decision to stop recruitment visas is not clear. We don’t have complete information on it,” an official at the Labor Office in Dammam said. He believed that the suspension of visa issuance and sponsorship transfer was temporary.
“There is no relation between the halt of recruitment visas and Saudization,” said the labor official, who requested anonymity, adding that private companies were cooperating with the Labor Office on employment of Saudis and maintaining the percentage of Saudi staff.
The head of the section for sponsorship change at the Passport Department in the Eastern Province, also denied the report. “We will continue to provide the service until we receive orders from higher authorities,” Al-Madinah daily quoted him as saying.
Dr. Ehsan Bouhaliga, an expert in labor affairs, has emphasized the need for implementing Saudization gradually. “There is no proof that small firms are the reason for an increase in the number of foreign workers,” he told Al-Watan.
He said foreign workers compete with Saudis not in terms of their numbers but qualifications, which meet a firm’s requirements. He said it was the failure to implement Saudization during the Sixth Development Plan that increased the unemployment rate.
“Had they implemented the policies effectively it would have cut foreign manpower by 1.5 million to two million,” he pointed out.
Saudi Arabia has decided to reduce the number of foreign workers to 20 percent of the country’s total population within the next 10 years. The decision taken by the Interior Ministry also insists that the number of a single nationality should not exceed 10 percent of the total foreign manpower. At present there are about seven million foreign workers and their dependents. The current population of Saudis in the Kingdom is estimated at more than 17 million.
