RIYADH: Despite the many regulations put in place by the government with the aim of protecting expats, many continue to suffer at the hands of their Saudi sponsors and employers.

For Ahmed Mahsoub, an Egyptian driver, the trouble started when he asked his sponsor, which happened to be an educational institute, for a salary certificate in order to buy a new car. As soon as he got the small family van, his sponsor asked him to use it to transport their students but he refused to do so since he had bought it for the use of his own family and not for work.

Mahsoub said they stopped him from working and suspended his salary until he handed over the car. One of his friends then advised him to lodge a complaint with the labor office.

Surprisingly, the labor office staff claimed that he would be deported because he had allegedly insulted some employees. Mahsoub noted that his current employers are not his original sponsor; therefore, he questioned how they could possibly force him to leave if he did not comply with their demands.

The case of Ahmad M., a Pakistani taxi driver, is equally shocking. He said that his sponsor asked him to pick up some luggage from the airport, but the flight with the luggage was delayed. Angered by the delay, his sponsor sent him an SMS containing information of a final exit visa for him.

He was deeply shocked and asked some friends to intervene in order to ask his sponsor to cancel the final exit visa. Despite all this, Ahmad says that the important issue here is that it is very easy for an employer to ruin someone’s life without considering that the person has a family to support.

A female expatriate, who requested anonymity, faced a similar ordeal. When she and her daughter who both worked for the same sponsor told the employer that they wanted to leave their positions and that they would continue working until a suitable replacement is found. However, the sponsor would not agree to this and instead told them that if they left, he would have the woman’s daughter deported.