JEDDAH: At least 50 percent of recruitment of workers from Bangladesh is delayed by six months as that country is giving priority to males rather than females, says a top official of Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI).

“Despite excellent relations between the two countries, the slow pace of recruitment is due to Bangladesh’s reported insistence on taking male workers instead of maids,” Mshari Al-Thufairi, acting head of the recruitment committee at RCCI, said.

Bangladeshi workers’ recruitment is, however, going on but at a snail’s pace, Al-Thufairi said. “Whenever we apply for recruiting their workers, we are asked to take male workers and taxi drivers equivalent to contracting every group of 10 maids. Agents had applied for at least 5,000 maids but there is as yet no response.”

He added that the recruitment committee and agents in Bangladesh have been saying that the ministry forces them to take male workers, although there are plenty of maids available and ready to travel to the Kingdom for work,” he added.”

The number of newly contracted Bangladeshi workers has reached just 1,360.

Al-Thufairi said some countries have stopped sending their female workers abroad for various reasons, one of them being once a domestic leaves the country she remains in the foreign country for at least six months till she gets her salary.

In this context, Al-Thufairi suggested that Saudi families should be oriented to honor the rights of workers. This is because although legal mechanism and good will exist in the Kingdom, the problem is of implementation.

Unless such problems are properly addressed, the Kingdom’s need for domestics, which is in the range of tens of thousands, will remain to the discomfiture of the local families.