The Ministry of Labor has banned 3,000 health facilities from recruiting foreigners in an attempt to help unemployed Saudi graduates of colleges and health institutes, said Vice Chairman of the Health Committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), Amr Abdul Aziz Khiary.
The continued ban, however, hurts the development of projects in these facilities due to the private health sector’s reliance on experience from abroad.
Despite the issuance of a Royal Decree ordering the training of graduates of health institutes and colleges and employing them in the government sector, 3,000 health facilities are still banned from obtaining visas to bring health practitioners from abroad despite having met the Saudization quota.
“We understand that the regulations of the Ministry of Labor give an opportunity to graduates of colleges and institutes of health. Health facilities have initiated meeting the demands of the Ministry of Labor and the Human Development Fund by reaching out directly to unemployed graduates,” said Al-Khiary.
“However, these graduates have not accepted our job offers because they prefer to be recruited for government jobs. Recruiters of government agencies are well aware of this.
Following the announcement of the decision to train and employ recent graduates, it clearly has become necessary to lift the ban on recruitment.”
Al-Khiary pointed out that two years ago, the owners of private hospitals could barely cover the shortages in qualified personnel. Some facilities have expanded and opened new branches but now remain closed due to the ban on recruitment.
According to Al-Khiary, the JCCI’s Health Committee will hold a meeting in the next few days with representatives of the Ministry of Labor to discuss this matter.
The Ministry of Labor has allowed private enterprises in the health sector to recruit labor from abroad provided they have obtained the consent of the Human Development Fund and have exhausted the lists of health practitioners enrolled in the Hafiz unemployment program. Hafiz has nearly 8,000 beneficiaries. This does not exempt establishments that have achieved high Saudization rates.
Saudi graduates have rejected working in the private sector following the ministry’s announcement of this resolution on the grounds that the government sector brings in thousands of workers from different countries each year, especially from East Asia.
Recruitment ban hits health facilities hard
