Is financial gain the only motive that has brought all these expatriate workers to our country? Are there perhaps other reasons that made them come to the Kingdom?
If material gain is the only reason for these workers leaving their families and countries and coming to try their luck in our country, then I think the disappointments and failures they encounter during their stay make the search for material gains an irrelevant motive.
We read reports all the time of foreign workers staging sit-ins and of crowds blocking the entrances of companies and factories where they work demanding payment of delayed wages.
Such scenes sharply contradict the hopes and ambitions of the workers when they first thought of coming here. It also contradicts what these workers were promised by their recruitment agencies in their home countries; the picture painted by the agencies of what awaits them here is not accurate.
A clever hard-working driver who speaks good English will never think of coming to the Kingdom. It is simply because his good English will enable him to find the kind of work that suits him and which allows him to stay close to his family and friends. While working in his country he can enjoy the scenery, as well as the tourist and recreation facilities.
He will find himself being sought by such employers as hotels, tour operators, taxi companies and others.
Why then should such a driver travel to a Gulf country and suffer in the baking summer heat, chaotic traffic, delayed payment of salaries and many other annoying things? This is not to mention the psychological pressure of being away from home and loved ones which makes people sick much of the time and affects their work performance.
All that I am saying here has been confirmed by the official of a recruitment agency in an Asian country — that only the desperate think of leaving their countries to seek work in the Gulf.
My conviction has been further confirmed by news of the ongoing crackdown campaigns launched by the Kingdom’s security forces against foreigners violating the country’s immigration and work laws. The campaigns has shown that many of those arrested in crime-infested neighborhoods came to the Kingdom, armed not with qualifications and talents sought by Saudi businesses and families but with the qualifications and experience that help them commit every kind of crime.
Let us hope that what has been discovered so far as a result of the campaigns will put an end to our fears. In the meantime, we should pray for Almighty God to protect us from what the future holds.
