JEDDAH: Owners of recruiting offices confirmed that the faltering of the recruitment issue and the lengthy proceedings, as well as the lack of an independent body to monitor and guarantee the rights of both parties, contribute to the unwillingness of 30 percent of the workers from various countries to work in the Kingdom.

They stressed that an independent body must be founded with the aim of monitoring and guaranteeing the rights of both sides, as well as the presence of a labor directorate or consulate at all Saudi embassies in exporting countries to raise awareness among workers and educate them about their rights in the Kingdom.

They all called for reconsideration of some of the decisions that have caused delays in the arrival of domestic employment, in addition to making sure of the health of workers from different countries before signing contracts.

Offices claim the percentage of workers arriving in the Kingdom is only up to 25 percent of the volume of issued visas by the ministry, while 85 percent are held up in offices due to the growing demand for domestic workers.

The head of the Committee on Recruitment at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, Yahya Al-Makbool, said the faltering in the recruitment issue for most countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh and India, is due to some of the decisions passed by the ministry that have contributed to the difficulty of recruiting these workers. This is in addition to the requirements of some of the exporting countries and the higher ceiling for the number of certified visas, he said.

He called on the ministry to stop issuing new visas until the completion of accumulated visas in recruitment offices, and to find a solution to the problem of the recruitment issue by reconsidering some decisions, and increasing the number of accredited offices in labor exporting states.

The spokesman for the recruitment offices in the Kingdom, Majid Al-Haghas, explained that other hindering factors include the delay in payment of salaries to workers by customers, lengthy recruitment procedures, negative competition between the companies and recruitment agencies, in addition to the absence of a clear mechanism to exclude offending customers from recruiting employees.