JEDDAH, 20 February 2005 — Taif municipality has signed a contract with a national company to hire foreign workers to work at the Taif fruit market. According to Al-Madinah Arabic daily, jobs at the market had been restricted to Saudis for several years. Saudis were, therefore, surprised a few days ago when more than 40 foreign workers reported for work.
Many Saudis have been forced to leave the market to seek other jobs. “Things changed last Tuesday when I arrived at the fruit market in the morning like I do everyday,” said Abdul Ghani Al-Ayeeli, a young Saudi who has carted produce at the market for three years. “I saw a huge number of foreign workers spreading out everywhere in the market doing the same job I was doing. Many Saudis like me suffered huge losses that day and a huge decline in our income.”
Many workers are asking “Why?”
“The decision to ban foreign workers from working in the fruit market was to create more job openings for Saudis,” said Muhammad Al-Sufyani, a Saudi who has supported his family from market work for the last two years. “The Taif municipality’s decision is a bad one, and it’s not helping Saudis. My daily average income used to be SR100 per day. Now I am struggling to earn SR15 a day.”
It makes some workers wonder if Saudization means anything.
“This company just violated the Saudization decision in search of more profit,” said Saad Al-Rabeie, a Saudi supporting a family of 12. “They must know that many Saudis are harmed by their decision. I have been working here for two months, and their presence is not helping us at all.”
Market businessmen have a different take on the situation.
“These workers are not in the fruit market to harm Saudis. Saudis are not helping themselves because they stay in the fruit market for two or three hours and when they believe that they got enough money, they head for home,” said Safar Al-Suwat, the manager of the national company that has brought in foreign workers.
He said the absence of Saudis from the fruit market attracted many overstayers and turned the fruit market into a place of drugs and crime.
“The municipality thought of hiring a national company to cover the shortage and we applied and won the contract. I do not know why people are complaining because we only have 40 workers in the fruit market and the fruit market is big enough to hold Saudis and non-Saudis,” Al-Suwat said.
The municipality, on the other hand, refused to accept accusations that it is harming Saudization, saying that the contract is for transporting fruit from trucks to stores in the fruit market — not for sales — in the fruit market.
