The Labor Ministry’s website for recruitment services, “Musaned” has for the first time recorded new countries to hire domestic workers including China, Chile, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, Mauritania, Yemen, Somalia and Tanzania.

However, it is notable that these countries have not agreed to send domestic workers to Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Kenya had allowed women to work as domestic workers in the Kingdom, but Kenya has recently revoked its agreement to send its female workers although the country still figures on Musaned, according to a local newspaper.

A number of recruitment offices pointed out the Labor ministry’s latest stipulation to publish domestic workers’ salaries and other information in order to regulate the local market. They noted that some offices are offering housemaids who are not legally allowed to work in the Kingdom.

Ali Al-Qurashi, a member in the Recruitment Committee in the Jeddah Chamber for Commerce and Industry, said that several countries were offering domestic workers at low salaries and with high quality services.

Speaking on the present situation of some countries refusing to send domestics to the Kingdom, he said: “The ministry is trying to employ domestic workers from foreign countries according to the agreements signed with them. However, some agreements did not work out as desired making it difficult to meet the rising demand for domestics.”