Labor Minister Adel Fakeih said that any citizen or businessman with a complaint has the right to resort to the Court of Grievances in cases against the ministry.

“On the other side, any government body such as ours has the right to use all legal means to defend decisions that are for the best interests of our home country,” Fakieh said on the recorded talk show, which will be broadcast next Saturday on Channel One. He argued that businessmen will not be allowed to continue recruiting cheap foreign labor to compete Saudis without any controls and accountability.

“Though there are more than 7.2 million foreign labors in the country,” he said. “Further, more numbers are needed in the coming years, but we badly need to set up controls so that citizens can get jobs with adequate wages and work conditions,” he added.

Commenting on the decision to raise foreign labor fees to SR 200 a month, he said: “The decision was issued by the Cabinet and we will continue working according to it, even if we have to go to court to defend the best interests of our country.” Fakieh indicated there are several corruption cases in some labor offices.

“But these cases are under our close follow-up and monitoring with the coordination of the investigation office for their detection and documentation,” he said.

He stressed that the radical solution for the time being is the one that the ministry is applying now.