Sponsors to be fined for refusing transfer

The Ministry of Labor has warned that Saudi sponsors will be fined for not transferring workers under their sponsorship. The director of the labor office in Jeddah Abdul Moniem bin Yaseen Al-Shahri said sponsors must also ensure that their workers are doing jobs specified on their residence and work permits.
He said that the ministry is carrying out regular inspections at companies. All violators are referred to the Ministry of Interior, which will deport those workers who are self-employed or have committed any other labor offense.
He said violators include those who have run away from their sponsors, or employed by other sponsors. He said the Ministry of Labor is prepared to offer guidance and advice to those who need to rectify their status.
The Saudi government announced the three-month grace period for employers and workers to sort out their papers just over a month ago, but some workers here say they do not know who their sponsors are.
A Yemeni working as a taxi driver in the Kingdom told a local newspaper that he obtained a visa from a relative working in the country but has no idea who his sponsor is and how to get in touch with him. Arab News reported last month that the ministry outlined 34 violations including expatriates failing to provide proof of residency, forgery and employers hiring workers on a visitor’s visa. Fines range from SR 1,000 to SR 50,000 depending on the nature of the violation.
A resident failing to prove that he holds an iqama faces a SR 1,000 fine for the first violation, SR 2,000 for the second offense and SR 3,000 for the third violation. Saudi citizens who help an expatriate obtain a forged iqama face fines of up to SR 15,000 and three months in jail.
Expatriates who forge iqamas or visas face up to three months in jail or a SR 10,000 fine. Individuals sheltering overstayers can expect to pay as much as SR 30,000 in fines and have their names published in the press. Fines are multiplied for each overstayer involved.
A Ministry of Labor source, meanwhile, was quoted by a local newspaper as saying that expatriates will be able to cancel reports categorizing them as missing or runaway workers if they return to their sponsors or get a new sponsor or employer classified in the Green Zone of the Nitaqat program.
The source said that these procedures form part of new regulations to be announced soon by the Labor Ministry for expatriates trying to correct their work status in the country.
However, Labor Ministry spokesman Hattab Al-Anazi told Arab News that details of the new regulations would only be announced "in the next few days."
Labor Minister Adel Fakeih is expected to meet with key labor-exporting countries on Saturday in Riyadh to outline details of the new regulations.
In 2012, the Ministry of Labor instructed all offices not to entertain requests for the cancellation of "huroob" or runaway reports, effective from Sept. 17. This measure was taken to reduce the number of applications received from employers seeking to cancel reports.