A severe shortage of housemaids resulting from a ban on household workers from certain countries has caused recruitment agencies’ fees in other countries such as India, Nepal and Ethiopia to double.
In a report by Al-Madinah, recruitment offices said visa fees have reached SR 8,000 for Ethiopian maids, SR 14,000 for Nepalese maids and SR 12,000 for Indians.
The highest rate was SR 15,000 for maids from Sri Lanka.
Saad Al-Badah, director at the new Saudi Manpower Services Company, said his organization is going to handle foreign recruitment in future.
Al-Badah said the new company would pay out compensation to a sponsor in case their worker runs away or refuses to work in the first two years.
Al-Badah added: “A recruiter will not bear any charges for labor services as the company will take care of administrative fees.”
According to him, sponsors will be provided with replacement workers in case their original employees run away but did not specify the timescale when substitutes would be provided.
Al-Badah did not disclose how many housemaids a family could recruit but said men should be married and financially sound to hire one, while divorced and widowed women need only to be financially sound.
He expected the housemaid crises to end within the next six months. He said customers could apply for workers through the company’s website www.smasco.com.
However, the company warned of attempts by bogus websites to obtain personal details from customers using its name.
The company said it would not ask anyone to provide information through third-party websites.
Maid crisis ups recruitment agency fees
