Today I am writing about another form of exploitation. About two years back, a number of companies selling men’s clothes announced new investment projects for the Saudi youth in collaboration with the Saudi Credit Bank and the Human Resources Development Fund.
Under these projects, a contract will be signed with a young Saudi who then can rent a shop and start selling the company’s clothes.
This contract will ensure the company obtains high profits and at the same time shackle the young people it employs under the scheme. The young Saudi should be committed to selling the company’s products only. He will face punishment if he dares to sell other products. The Credit Bank will give him a loan to cover the expenses of the premises and the monthly rent.
He will be damned if he defaults on any of his installment payments. The Human Resources Development Fund will pledge to pay the young man a monthly salary of SR3,000 to help him run his project.
The youth will be happy that he has a good income, but he will be in for a big surprise because after two or three months the fund will stop paying him.
He will find out that he was a victim of exploitation. The fund will stop paying the salary, the company will start ignoring him after making great profits off his back and the bank will break his back by demanding payment of the installments.
If the youth decides to pay the whole value of the goods provided to him by the company to free himself from its grip, he will discover that there is a clause in the contract making it imperative to pay the complete loan to the bank. At the end of the day, these youths will find themselves not only unemployed, but also in debt.
The question is this. Are our institutions serious in helping our youth, or are they leaving them at the mercy of companies that suck their blood?
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