More than 120 recruitment offices in the Kingdom have refused to deal with their counterparts in the Philippines following the decision taken by the Philippine Ministry of Labor to suspend functioning of its labor offices in the country with no regard for contracts signed with the Saudi side.

More than 50 percent of the contract costs have been paid by Saudi offices here in the Kingdom, which cannot be recovered now.

A source in the Ministry of Labor in the Philippines said recruitment offices there had been stopped from functioning without any coordination with the Saudi agencies.

“Saudi recruitment offices are affected because they pay 50 percent of the recruitment cost in advance. When recruitment is stopped for any reason, nobody can recover the money paid,” the source said.

The source demanded that the Ministry of Labor in the Philippines should give a grace period for labor-exporting offices in Manila to implement the contracts signed, or force the Philippine office to pay back all costs paid.

The Saudi Embassy in the Philippines had earlier designated more than 360 labor-exporting offices to recruit house help for Saudi Arabia, in a move aimed at regulating work procedures and maintaining the rights of all parties concerned.

Commenting on the decision of the Saudi Embassy, Said Al-Maswi, head of the recruitment committee in Baha Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “The decision of the embassy is aimed at protecting recruitment offices as well as citizens from any manipulative practices by some labor offices in the Philippine and other countries.”

Al-Maswi applauded the efforts made by the Saudi Ministry of Labor in general and Labor Minister Adel Fakeih in particular for the negotiations currently being held with these countries in this regard.

Saudi Arabia earlier signed a bilateral agreement with the Philippines for recruitment of manpower for the Kingdom, the first of its kind between the Saudi Ministry of Labor and a labor-exporting country.