Whenever I write something on expat-related issues, their rights and responsibilities, my e-mail account gets flooded with letters from my readers, thanking me for highlighting their problems.
Apart from that, I have noticed that in many letters they narrate their ordeals and the difficulties they are being faced with. Ironically, most of the issues if not all, can easily be resolved by their respective embassies in Riyadh or consulates across the Kingdom.
Let me clear one thing, I am not talking about all embassies or diplomatic missions. Most of the time, I receive sad stories from South East Asian or African nationals. There are millions of expatriates from some regions and their respective embassies in Riyadh have to increase their staff or use better systems of tracking the wellbeing of their nationals. Each embassy must have a system to know the status of each individual. Modern technology allows the embassies to track the whereabouts of any individual. The foreign embassies can have a web portal that allows any individual to get registered and indicate his status in regard of movements, salary or any kind of abuse. And when any individual doesn’t report about his status for a period exceeding 3-6 months, then the embassy must follow up. And this reporting system is easy to install and can record as many information as needed.
As we know, every foreigner working in Saudi Arabia has an Iqama number and any foreign embassy staff can easily track his countrymen in the Kingdom. There are many cases when an expatriate breaks the law and it is important for the embassies to get to know about his status. I am not talking about a simple traffic violation, but, there are many cases in which a big offense is being committed and some time the first day or hours are very crucial. Sometimes there are very sensitive and important information, which can be lost in translations. And we all remember the story of the British au pair in Massachusetts, US, who was accused of shaking an infant who died in the process. In the first hour of the investigation, she used the word “popped.” This word is used in the United States to reflect some sort of violence, but, it has a different meaning in the United Kingdom, and we all know the rest of the story.
Some foreign embassies in Riyadh were put to the test during the correction period. The embassies knew six months in advance and they still were lacking behind in processing their countrymen papers. The expatriates in the Kingdom are very valuable to their countries’ economies. They send back home billions of badly needed hard currency that help their families and help the economy of their country, so, at least they should be given better treatment and better services. At the end of the day, the embassy staff is hired to help those hardworking individuals. Many critical cases could have been solved, if the embassy staff had intervened at the right time.
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