JEDDAH, 29 August 2003 — Saudi Arabia will look for other markets if Indonesia insists on raising charges for manpower recruitment, according to Ibrahim Omar Al-Kharrashi, undersecretary at the Foreign Ministry for consular affairs.
He said Jakarta’s decision to increase recruitment charges was a violation of the agreement signed by the two sides. “This will undoubtedly affect manpower recruitment from Indonesia,” he added.
Al-Kharrashi said that a joint panel comprising representatives from the National Recruitment Committee and the Indonesian Federation of Manpower Companies would settle any conflict between the Saudi recruitment offices and their counterparts in Indonesia.
The Saudi official said plans by certain East Asian countries to increase manpower recruitment charges would only encourage Riyadh to look for other markets that would be ready to supply domestic staff at reasonable rates.
“If these countries make such a move, it would not serve their interests as Saudi Arabia represents a big market for their manpower,” Al-Kharrashi told Al-Riyadh newspaper.
Saudi authorities have already announced plans to resume recruitment of domestic staff from Bangladesh after a break of 15 years in their bid to open new markets for recruitment.
Walid Abdullatif Al-Suwaidan, chairman of the National Recruitment Committee, told Arab News there were plans to open new markets for recruitment of domestic staff. The first batch of 500 Bangladeshi maids is expected to arrive in the Kingdom soon.
Al-Riyadh said the Indonesian authorities had increased the charges for recruitment of domestic staff to the Kingdom from SR2,800 to SR3,500.
Al-Suwaidan said he expected the Indonesian authorities to take immediate action to reverse the hike, especially for insurance, medical check-ups and training of workers and attestation of their contracts.
There are some 180,000 Indonesian domestic workers in the Kingdom who account for 70 percent of Saudi Arabia’s domestic staff market estimated at SR700 million.
Of the 400 recruitment offices in the Kingdom, 80 specialize in bringing manpower from Indonesia.
The Saudi Embassy has issued 50,000 visas for Indonesian workers during the past months following a four-month freeze in recruitment of Indonesian manpower to the Kingdom.
Indonesia decided to hike charges following a resolution taken by the Southeast Asian labor ministers last May. Saudi Arabia recruits about 15,000 Indonesian maids monthly.
Indonesia plans to implement next month a new system of certifying the contracts of its domestic staff at the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh at a cost of SR100.
Earlier this year Jakarta suspended exports of its manpower to the Kingdom citing the dangers posed by the US-led war on Iraq.
After that the Indonesian recruitment offices increased the charges by SR750 saying they had increased the training period for workers from 10 days to one month. But the Kingdom said it had little impact on the workers.
