TRAVEL agencies being raided because they have not implemented Saudization rules is one thing; Saudization is the law and the law must not be ignored. But dragging off ticketing clerks and shaving their heads is quite another.
The story is both appalling and sad. Appalling because it was humiliating and degrading; sad because it happened in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, the protector of all human rights.
Those responsible may well say that they were doing their patriotic duty by arresting non-Saudi travel agency employees; but they achieved the exact opposite. They have done great damage to the image of our country in the eyes of the foreign community here and the international community abroad.
Arresting innocent expatriate workers in their offices as if they were criminals and furthermore making them pay for their own heads to be shaven has nothing to do with Saudization. But it has everything to do with violating the very basics of human rights: security and dignity.
The travel agency employees went through an experience they will not forget. So what was their crime that they had to be arrested and degraded?
If anyone is to blame for not implementing Saudization in a business, it should be the proprietors. That is where the buck stops, not with people at the bottom of the ladder. That is unfair and unjust. The proprietors are the ones who should be taken to task if they are flouting the law. In any event, surely there is normally due legal process? A fine and a warning first time for not implementing the law and if they still refuse to comply, then a bigger fine and a final warning. If they persist, then a fine so draconian it closes the company.
If the arrests and raids continue, we can only expect the worst. Not only will other travel agencies who have not fully Saudized shut shop for fear of being raided, but it will make for hostile publicity abroad for the Kingdom and its laws. That is something we cannot afford, especially just with WTO membership around the corner. Membership of the organization is about being open to foreign involvement in the Saudi economy. This escapade sends the opposite signal.
Just as bad, it undermines efforts to rebuild our image after attacks in the Western media. They will all have gone to waste by a single report sent by a wire agency to all ends of the world.
What is ironic about all of this is that this incident has happened at a time when the Kingdom has just approved the establishment of its first human rights watchdog. Will this be the body’s first case?
