A 15 percent increase in domestic workers’ salaries over the past six months have left many families angered, and has created a black market for illegal workers in the Kingdom that is driving prices even higher.

Homeowners currently pay domestic workers a daily rate of approximately SR120, a figure that has increased excessively in comparison with the average wage last year of SR50. Some families have been forced to look to the black market to find cheaper labor.

“We can’t afford recruiting a visa for a maid which could cost us as much as SR25,000,” one homeowner told Arab News. A visa for a worker from the Philippines now costs SR16,000, compared to last year’s cost of SR10,000. Sri Lankan workers visas have been among the most significantly affected by price changes, soaring to SR24,000 compared to just SR6,000 previously.

For homeowner Umm Anas, cooperating with workers who chose to violate the residency regulations has become the trend: “I started hiring illegal expats to do work for us on special occasions and holidays”. She told Arab News that lately workers have been asking for salaries of up to SR120 instead of the normal price of SR60.”

One government schoolteacher, Suad Khaled, said that her and her husband can’t afford recruiting a legal worker from abroad, even though her husband is very successful in his work for a private company. “Apart from prices, the process takes many months,” she said. However, Khaled agreed to recruit an illegal worker to help her during the day-time for a monthly salary of SR1,300. “The prices of these workers are increasingly high, but I don’t have any other options amidst this wave of price increases,” she explained to Arab News.

Yehya Al-Makboul, head of the Recruitment Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the rising costs of domestic workers are caused by a combination of factors, including their high demand, regulations at workers’ countries of origin, and the intervention of recruiting agents.

Al-Makboul emphasized the need to strengthen the visa system and decrease the demand of external domestic workers, specifically in relation to the Kingdom’s agreements with India, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Ali Al-Qurashi, member of the recruitment committee, said that the increasing prices are due to the lack of legal workers, adding that there are no safe guards for those who hire these workers. “I suggest that the Labor Ministry open several alternate modes of recruitment, as Indonesia, Kenya and Nepal have done, and to not allow these external offices to deal with just any recruitment office in the Kingdom,” he said.