Stranded Pakistani expat workers caught in complex case

The case of 700 Pakistanis “stranded” in Riyadh has assumed added significance with the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari yesterday asking authorities to submit a report on their case in three days.
A high-level source told Arab News last night that the case does not pertain to only Pakistani nationals. He said the case is more complex than what it initially appeared.
“Nearly 1,400 employees of the Riyadh-based Turkish firm MAAPA Construction and Trade Company have been affected,” said the source. “They include Egyptians, Syrians, Indians and Bangladeshis.”
Arab News first reported on Tuesday that hundreds of expatriates were swindled out of their life savings when they were issued fraudulent visas. They arrived in Saudi Arabia at the end of 2011 to work and are unable to return home.
The case involves different government agencies, departments and labor courts in the Kingdom, and its resolution requires high-level intervention, according to sources close to the case. The issue of the “stranded” Pakistanis was first brought to the attention of the Pakistani ambassador in Riyadh three weeks ago during one of the many open houses that the embassy conducts weekly for its nationals.
According to one community representative, the embassy immediately took up the issue with the company’s senior management and realized that the case was nearly a year old and still under investigation.
A Syrian national and employees working in the Turkish company’s human resources development department were found to have been responsible for illegally procuring visas through online manipulation.
The company immediately informed authorities and lodged a formal complaint with the local police. The Syrian national and his alleged accomplices were arrested. The Syrian is still behind bars awaiting judgment. Since the case involved 1,400 illegal visas, the local governorate formed a committee to investigate the scam. A number of government agencies and departments, including the police and the Labor Department, were asked to assist in the investigation. The committee has not yet submitted its report.
Since the case is still under investigation, all affected employees were barred from leaving the country.
“They can neither get an exit/re-entry visa nor a final exit,” said the source. “They cannot even get their residency permits (iqamas) transferred to a different company.”
The affected employees did not care to report the matter to their missions for one full year. The employees had received their one-year validity iqamas from the Turkish company and they were more than happy to work for different companies.
According to the source, the employees started panicking and raising a storm when they realized that their iqamas were nearing expiration.
“They did not raise a voice earlier because it suited them,” said one source. “Only when they found that they were soon going to be illegal in the Kingdom in the absence of a valid iqama did they cry foul.”
According to senior Pakistani expatriates in Riyadh, the Pakistani Embassy has lent high priority to the case. It has designated special officials to follow up on the case. They are in regular touch with the Turkish company’s senior management and are liaising with different government departments to provide relief to their citizens.
Since the case is still under investigation, no single authority is in a position to take a decision on the issue of illegal visa. The embassies are trying to impress upon the local authorities that while the guilty men at the company should be punished those who have become their victims should be allowed to go home.
In the coming days, a series of meetings are lined up with the different departments of the government to find a solution to the problem.