MAKKAH, 3 August 2006 — Across the world, sloppy builders, electricians, joiners, plumbers and car mechanics have an infamous tendency to sip tea, overcharge and, majority of times, inadequately complete jobs.
However, in foreign countries bad workmanship is attributed to lazy workers but in Saudi Arabia poor workmanship and a string of mishaps is the art of overstayers who, having no expertise or experience, pretend to be highly skilled.
Financial fraudsters harm people’s pockets but the facade that unskilled workers hide behind cause not only headaches and financial loss but ultimately can potentially cause injuries and even deaths. Unskilled mechanics have been blamed for damaging cars and causing car accidents across the Kingdom.
From morning to night, overstayers of all nationalities gather in the Al-Maabda area waiting and looking for potential work. When the sun is at its hottest they take shade under trees in a nearby garden ruining the beautiful scene by leaving rubbish lying around.
As soon as a car stops in the area, the overstayers lunge forward, jump inside and then negotiate what type of work they will do and how much they will charge. The overstayers will say yes to all types of work and claim to be electricians, teachers, plumbers and mechanics all rolled into one scruffy overstayer. In reality, the men usually know nothing and most are illiterate and uneducated. There is only one thing they care for and that is money. As long as they see the riyals rolling in they aren’t bothered.
With an aim of getting an inside story of what is happening in the dark murky underworld of overstayers, I bought myself a shovel and having dressed up in a strange outfit spent two days sitting with overstayers in Makkah.
After two hours, one of the overstayers came and sat by me asking me where I was from. I told him I was from an Arab country and had overstayed after Umrah to earn a little money. As I sat with them I soon learned that the men were openly talking about tricking customers just to earn money. I told them that I was a professional builder, something that caused a round of hysterical laughter. One of the men then told me not to limit myself on just one profession and when a customer comes pretend to be an “all-rounder.” In fact one of them told me that with their status being illegal it was fine to lie about professions.
A car soon stopped and friends were no more friends as everyone began pushing and shoving each other to speak to the driver in getting a job. I soon noticed that the overstayers were working in gangs, Egyptians were trying to exclude Pakistanis and the Sudanese to ensure one of their own gets a job and likewise others nationalities were doing the same. As I tried making my way through, the driver selected three Egyptians and quickly left.
One of the workers, a Syrian called Saleem, said: “Whenever a customer asks if you can do a job then just tell him that you can. Most people here do not know anything; they just try for the money.” As I sat speaking to him, all of the sudden he got up and began running away with the rest of the workers. I turned around and saw a police car approaching, and so I joined them in running away. As soon as the police left we came back and sat down at the same place.
Another man waiting around is Hussein who is from Egypt. Hussein said that he is not an overstayer but is rather in violation of Saudi residency laws. “My sponsor threw me out into the street and told me to go out and work and earn money for him. He said he wouldn’t renew my iqama unless I brought him money. After a while I decided not to renew my iqama and work freely. I came to this place because this is the only place where I can work. Most of the people are unskilled and most Saudis are only bothered about saving money.”
Another Egyptian is Haroon who said that he came to the Kingdom on an Umrah visa after being unemployed in his home country for quite some time. “Everyone around here says they know everything when in reality they know nothing. I have all sorts of tools from hammers to shovels. We fix whatever we can and then hope nothing happens to what we work on,” he said.
Abdullah Zaid is a Saudi citizen whose house caught fire because of the shoddy workmanship of an overstayer. “Three years ago I needed an electrician to do some wiring in my house. I thought to myself I should get an overstayer because they are cheaper. A Sudanese overstayer convinced me that he knew everything and that he could rewire my house for a fraction of the price,” said Zaid.
Two days later one of the rooms the Sudanese man had been working in went up in flames. “Thank God, there was only a little damage done to my house. I wonder what would have happened if my family was asleep in the room? I admit that it was my mistake that I didn’t get a professional worker. Overstayers are appealing for people wanting to save money.”
