The ban on recruiting Indonesian workers has forced several Saudi families to turn to the black market.
Several African women have publicly offered their services for a higher salary and specific requirements at workplaces, according to a report in Al-Riyadh daily.
In Riyadh, Ommu Al-Hamam district is the haven for such domestic servants.
Rackets of illegal house workers based in this district are engaged in supplying housemaids to families.
Runaway maids already dominate the local housemaid sector. Several rackets are engaged in finding work for these women, mainly of Asian origin.
Some of them work on a daily wage basis. The agents who run the market provide them with shelter, in addition to finding jobs for them.
Minister of Labor Adel Faqeeh recently announced plans to launch a national company for recruiting house workers.
The new company, which starts operating this year, aims to regulate the domestic help market by cracking down on the black market and putting an end to the problem of runaway maids.
Waleed Al-Suwaidan, private sector representative at the Ministry of Labor’s recruitment committee, said illegal domestic workers from Ethiopia managed to consolidate their position in the domestic market, including at houses, wedding halls and at special events for women. They are either Haj or Umrah overstayers or have run away from their sponsors.
It is worth noting that officials from the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s national recruitment committee have already paid visits to Addis Ababa earlier to hold negotiations with Ethiopian authorities on the possibility of recruiting domestic help from the country.
The recent decision of the committee to suspend the hiring of Indonesian domestic helpers has boosted the recruitment market in other countries, especially Ethiopia.
The committee directed recruitment offices in the Kingdom not to receive any work visas for Indonesians, as the Indonesian Labor Federation allegedly failed to abide by the terms and conditions of a bilateral agreement.
