RIYADH: The Ministry of Labor will launch a project to minimize the illegal trading in labor visas, a ministry official said.
The new project called “Worker Lending Project,” will permit a sponsor to lend a worker under his sponsorship to another sponsor temporarily. Existing labor regulations do not allow an expatriate worker to serve another sponsor.
“The project aims to rein in the negative phenomena of trading in job visas. Another goal of the project is to minimize the number of expatriate laborers illegally wandering in the job market,” Abdullah Al-Haqabani, the ministry’s undersecretary for Planning and Development, said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency. It is a common sight in cities and towns, especially in the morning hours, to see expatriate workers waiting on the street looking for temporary work. Even if those workers possess a valid residency permit (iqama), they are allowed to engage only in the work specified in their iqama and labor card under his legal sponsor.
A Saudi economist said last month that approximately 30 percent of the job visas issued in the Kingdom end up in the black market.
The illegal trade in visas is also depriving Saudis their right to get employed, besides posing threats to the economy, security and social life. One of the aims of the Nitaqat program is to end the illegal trade, according to an earlier statement of the ministry.
Regulations for the new worker lending system have been drawn up after detailed assessment of the labor market in the Kingdom. The ministry also consulted local recruitment companies to increase their service to the people, Al-Haqabani said in a workshop organized by the ministry to familiarize with the project.
“The project will also improve the quality of expatriate workers coming to the Kingdom,” he said.
Representatives of labor recruiting companies also attended the workshop in which the regulations governing lending of workers were presented, SPA reported.
The lending system will also gives labor recruitment companies an opportunity to form a realistic picture of the job market apart from giving a precise idea of the quality and capability of foreign workers in the country, he said.
“The implementation of the system will be undertaken with the participation of recruitment companies in order to guarantee its success. The project also seeks to make a positive impact on the economic progress in the country,” he said.
The ministry completed the first stage of the worker lending project by launching online linking of recruitment companies with the ministry.
This enables recruitment companies to interact directly with the ministry on labor issues, director of the project Sami Harshan said.
Sponsors will be allowed to lend workers to others
