We get hurt every time the prices of any of these three elements are increased.

While the prices of food and drugs have eroded our budgets without any hope for a solution, the Ministry of Labor attempted to resolve the crisis of recruiting housemaids from the Philippines and Indonesia by opening new markets.

The ministry stopped recruitment from the two Asian countries after a disagreement on working conditions. The ministry’s representatives finally landed in Africa for a possible solution. It turned its back on the two most famous exporters of housemaids to inform us that we should look toward Africa and other countries such as Sri Lanka, Vietnam and possibly central Asian countries for housemaids.

This is an important step. The aim of the ministry was to protect the citizens against additional monthly financial commitments resulting from the rising cost of recruitment from the Philippines and Indonesia.

This does not mean that we do away with the Indonesian and Filipino housemaids working with us now. In fact, there are some Saudi families who were not willing to give away their housemaids and drivers from these two countries. They insist on keeping them even if they have to increase their salaries.

We should not also forget that some Saudi families would delay or are reluctant to pay the monthly salaries of their house helps.

Negotiations concerning the issue of recruitment from the Philippines and Indonesia took a long time without any result. The two countries know very well our need for their manpower so they stick to their difficult conditions. In answer to this, we do not hesitate to tell them that we have other alternatives.

Both Jakarta and Manila are reconsidering their attitudes vis-à-vis the recruitment of housemaids. The Filipino foreign minister reportedly said that 1.3 million out of 9 million overseas workers from his country were employed in Saudi Arabia.

This statement reflected the impact of the cessation of recruitment from his country, especially when we come to know that Filipino manpower in the Kingdom annually remit to their country more than SR25 billion. Remittances from Indonesians in the Kingdom were even higher, amounting to more than SR40 billion.

But what about the new markets? It is worth noting that many Saudi families have welcomed the Ministry of Labor’s decision to go to Africa for housemaids.

The potential problems facing this initiative is that the new housemaids from Africa would need time to get acquainted to our customs and traditions.

There is also the problem of obtaining from these countries health certificates, which could be easily forged. Recruitment offices and unlicensed brokers would soon emerge in Africa to compete in exporting manpower to the Kingdom. These unlawful brokers might add to the instability of the housemaids market in the Kingdom.