Workshop focuses on housemaids’ hiring issues

JEDDAH: The Consumer Protection Association organized a workshop, attended by a number of representatives from several embassies to discuss problems related to maids’ recruitment, including their running away as well as cost management.
Abdurrahman Al-Qahtani, secretary general of the Consumer Protection Association, said the Kingdom is facing problems as regards housemaids’ recruitment and which needs concerted efforts and support to find out practical solutions.
The association is undertaking such issues mainly related to the maids with the aim to to control the cost and reduce the time of bringing them as well as improve the capabilities of workers.
He said the association has organized two workshops for representatives of the concerned government organizations and recruitment offices to learn reasons behind delays and their hiring costs.
Representatives from embassies including the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh participated in the workshop that focused on the solutions proposed by them on a range of issues like maids’ arrival, increase in the total cost and the issue of female workers often fleeing away.
It compared the cost structure with neighboring countries and discussed role of the private sector in affecting the cost assessment, as also the effect of rules and regulations. The other issues that came in for discussion included maids’ lack of preparedness while coming to the Kingdom, teaching them about Saudi culture, differences between the countries on the issues, besides the problem of their running away.
The workshop also discussed the role of human traffickers and the illegal market that makes it easy for the maids to run away.
The reasons behind delays in recruitment of workers; local practices and experiences of other countries of the region; and lack of communication between recruiting agents of the two sides were also discussed.