The Ministry of Labor plans to sign agreements with four new countries to recruit more domestic workers in a bid to solve the recruitment crises facing recruitment offices, a local daily reported, quoting sources at the Ministry of Labor.

According to the sources, the ministry has finalized negotiations for the recruitment of domestic workers from four countries, namely, Laos, Djibouti, the Comoro Islands and Cambodia.

Head of the Recruitment Committee at the Jeddah chamber of commerce and industry (JCCI) Yahiya Al-Maqbul said the ministry’s opening of new countries for house workers’ recruitment is a radical solution to the current crisis which will reduce labor costs and prices of recruiting house workers, he said.

Meanwhile, some Saudi owners of recruitment offices were arrested by Philippine government agencies in Manila, the daily said, quoting office owners. The Saudi citizens were reportedly in Manila to finalize the recruitment procedures, the paper said.

Commenting on the arrests of the Saudi citizens in the Philippines, Al- Maqbul said it was against the ministry’s regulations to go to the country offering domestic labor as all recruitment procedures should be carried out in the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Labor and the Philippines government have already concluded the labor recruitment deals specifying terms and conditions pertaining to the recruitment of labor from that country, he said.