JEDDAH: Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi said yesterday that 45 companies in Jeddah ceased their activities after obtaining visas to bring foreign workers into the Kingdom.
“These companies applied for recruitment visas at the Labor Office in Jeddah and received them,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying.
The implication is that these were ghost companies operating only in order to acquire visas that can be sold to workers or shady recruitment operations. After the visas were issued, the companies shut down. It was unclear over what time period these companies were able to fraudulently acquire work visas, and Al-Gosaibi did not mention the number of visas illegally obtained by these fake firms.
The minister said that the Labor Office would block future attempts by such operations to game the system to acquire visas under false pretenses. He said the ministry was also following up the plight of workers who may have come into the Kingdom on these visas only to discover that they had no sponsor.
Al-Gosaibi urged Labor Office directors across the country to inform about such fake companies in order to take appropriate actions against them.
Al-Gosaibi emphasized his ministry’s determination to eradicate shell companies that trade in visas.
“This measure will also contribute to Saudization of jobs,” he added, referring to the national policy to replace foreign workers with Saudis wherever possible.
The disappearance of 45 companies came at a time when the Labor Ministry is planning to abolish the sponsorship system and streamline the relationship between employers and their workers. The move was also aimed at stopping illegal trade in recruitment visas.
Al-Gosaibi told a close-door session of the 150-member Shoura Council recently about his ministry’s plan to establish specialized companies to organize foreign work force and supervise the signing of contracts between employers and workers. He also said that a new law, canceling the sponsorship system, would be issued soon.
Many Saudi companies and individuals have been involved in the lucrative visa trade for many years. The availability of such visas, popularly known as “free visas,” reduced considerably in recent years.
