JEDDAH: Recruitment offices have rejected applications for domestic workers from India because of the rule that insists that uneducated domestic workers be insured.

Offices have been quoted by local media as saying that this requirement would increase the cost of recruitment.

Deputy Minister of Labor for State Affairs, Ahmed Al-Faheed, said: “The government of India wants uneducated household workers holding “AGR” type passports to be insured, but the Kingdom does not seek to recruit this category of workers. We want household workers who are trained and have completed basic education, and that is why we do not want to recruit workers with this type of passport.”

Asked if this is a violation of the agreement between the two countries, he said: “The agreement does not stipulate a requirement of insurance to cover household workers; but we do not want these types of workers.”

Saudi Arabia and India signed an agreement to regulate recruitment of household workers last year and the Ministry of Labor began to recruit workers last Ramadan.

However, recruitment offices have been rejecting applications of workers due to the insurance requirement, which they argue doubles recruitment costs for beneficiaries.

As a result, recruitment applications have been accumulating at offices since last Ramadan, and would only increase and delay processes should recruitment continue.