Expats continue to live in limbo

A number of foreign residents continue living in a state of unease and limbo, fretting about their future and lives after the Ministry of Labor decreed a new set of laws for expatriate employees.
Mohammed Al-Ash’ari, a young Syrian, who after having displaced from his native country due to the ensuing civil war, had fled to Saudi Arabia with his mother and sister. Al-Ash’ari expected to stay in the Kingdom for a couple of months, until the situation got better back home, but as the turmoil exacerbated in Syria, he decided to search for a job that would allow him to sustain his family here.
“After five months of our stay here, and with the absence of any signs of returning to Syria, I decided to look for a job, and soon became a receptionist in one of the furnished apartments for a period of four months, 12 hours a day. I was surprised however by the new decisions issued by the Saudi Ministry of Labor to regulate the labor market.”
He said, “Despite the government decree that owners of business houses correct the status of their employees, many employers refused to do so, for undisclosed reasons. I was prompted to leave my job as a consequence of my employer’s refusal to regularize my work status under his sponsorship. Now I am left searching for another job in which I could work legally.”
For Nisreen Hashim, a young Egyptian, who has been working for the past five years at a local company in the field of public relations, the situation is different. Her company begun rectifying the work status of many of the employees. In her case, however, the company did not have a job title they can transfer her residence permit to. Hashim holds a Master’s degree in international relations and has been working as a public relations and customer service manager, which is considered an administrative job and is a non-transferable job title according to her company. As a result, she has decided to go to the United Arab Emirates, where her aunt lives.
Faten Mohammed is a Lebanese national, who faces a similar problem and will soon have to stay back home. She has been working as a beauty and fashion consultant at one of the local salons; she holds several certificates from international institutes in her respective field. However, she has only one and a half months remaining at her current job. The salon has agreed to transfer her residence permit to the salon’s sponsorship, however the only titles available are those of a tailor or a servant. She has therefore refused to transfer her iqama as that would hinder her ability to obtain visas to travel to other countries, especially since the nature of her job demands traveling with artists and attending courses outside the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Ayan Alhathrey, a Yemeni girl, disclosed warily, that she decided to sit home and prepare herself for a groom who has yet to come, rather than transfer her sponsorship from her father to a company, which pays her a salary that barely covers her personal expenses.