The shocking details were revealed in a declassified US State Department report that was made public on Monday through its website. It also covered other Gulf states. Hours after the publication in Arab News of a story based on the report, it was made remarkably difficult to access.
Arab News downloaded the report in a PDF format on Tuesday by logging onto the State Department website and typing “Saudi Arabia” in the search bar.
The report, which carries the title, “Performance Evaluation of Department of State Contracts to Assess the Risk of Trafficking in Persons Violations in Four States in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf,” came up in an instant.
That, however, was not the case on Wednesday. The same search string brought up a link to an innocuous report on G20 trade and investment measures.
There was no trace of the damning report on contractual worker abuse. It could only be accessed by punching in the exact number of the report (156263) in the search bar on the website.
A British expatriate contacted Arab News to say that he was having trouble accessing the report. When told that he needed to punch in the exact report number, the expatriate expressed his frustration and hung up.
Certain claims in the State Department report has been echoed by stories in the local media.
Large labor-intensive companies in the Kingdom, especially in the construction field, have long stopped hiring labor themselves and have instead taken to relying on manpower suppliers to provide them with cheap contractual labor.
Some of these contracting companies have reportedly abused their workers and undercut their salaries with a view to maximizing their profits. For instance, if a contracting company gets SR2,000 for an employee, it passes only 40 percent of that amount to the laborer.
From the companies’ point of view, it makes sense because they do not have to worry about labor cases, end-of-service disputes, medical insurance and low salaries.
All that is taken care of by the contractors and subcontractors and if something terrible happens, it is the contractors who are held accountable.
The American missions in Saudi Arabia have similarly tasked the job of carrying out menial tasks to contracting companies.
Until the report was made public, it was assumed that the workers, especially gardeners, maids, cooks and local guards, were not the responsibility of the US missions. The report makes it absolutely clear that the mission is as responsible for the wellbeing of those working at their missions as the contractors and subcontractors.
In the report by the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), it was revealed that in Riyadh, the embassy’s 19 gardeners shared a dilapidated apartment building with numerous fire and safety hazards.
Exposed, frayed wiring was visible throughout the building, said the report, adding that the walls, floors, ceilings, molding and stairs had extensive water damage from a leaking water tank on the building’s roof and pipes in the walls.
During the site visit, OIG observed open wiring throughout the workers’ apartment building and water trickling down walls of the five bedrooms the workers shared.
“The living room is filled with boxes, bicycles, and other second-hand or salvaged items…The kitchen is dirty and workers also note an infestation of insects,” it said. “Of the apartment building’s three bathrooms, only one has a working sink. One bathroom has a working shower, but a broken toilet and an uncovered floor drain. A washing machine in the third bathroom makes it difficult to access the toilet.” The report supported its observations with pictures.
Bonnie Gutman, a spokesman at the US Embassy in Riyadh, told Arab News that they are working to integrate the findings of the report into their operations and planning. “We strive to ensure that our embassies and consulates remain in compliance with the laws and regulations that prohibit these kind of practices,” said Gutman.
A French expatriate said he was shocked beyond words.
“This is unbelievable,” he said. “Yes, we know that there are companies here that are using cheap subcontract labor. But the US embassy? They must have known it,” he said.
“If they were a private operator in the US, they would be prosecuted. There, companies have to answer for the actions of their subcontractors. If a US company buys goods from a Chinese manufacturer that turn out to be made by child labor, it can be prosecuted,” he pointed out.
“Claiming ignorance won’t work,” he said. “It has a legal obligation to know what its subcontractors are doing.”
The French expat referred to the recent BP catastrophe. “BP did not own or operate the oil rig that caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico and caused such a disaster. It belonged to a subcontractor. But because it was working for BP, BP was held responsible by the US government,” he said. “It is the same here. It was the duty of the embassy to know the employment conditions of people who were working in the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Dhahran.”
Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, a retired Royal Saudi Navy commodore, said when he heard about the exploitation of workers at the American Embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Dhahran, the first thing that came to his mind was that they were not paid their overtime dues.
“It turned out to be far worse,” he told Arab News. “We are talking here about miserable living conditions and passport confiscations…This is a serious issue, especially since the US embassies and consulates all over the world miss no opportunity to harangue and castigate the host countries when something less severe than this comes up. What is sauce for the goose has to be sauce for the gander.”
The report can be downloaded at http://oig.state.gov/documents/organization/156263.pdf.
