The move will hit Nepali migrant workers hard as it is the third most preferred destination

The third most preferred job destination for Nepali migrant workers — has adopted a plan to reduce foreign workers dependency.

According to the plan, Saudi companies hiring more foreign workers than the locals have to pay cash fine. The new policy will affect workers sending countries like Nepal. The plan will decrease Nepali workers migration to Saudi Arabia to almost half. Saudi Arab has been hiring an average of 10,664 Nepali migrant workers per month in current fiscal year.

Last year, Nepalis migration to the destination stood at 80,445. Some 492,896 Nepalis have joined Saudi jobs since the fiscal year 1993-94. The plan brought last week mulls to lower domestic youth unemployment, the official Saudi Press Agency reported today. Unemployment among youth in Saudi Arabia has reached 10.5 per cent in January, it reported, adding that the plan aims at targeting three million jobs creation for Saudi people by 2015 and six million by 2030.

Saudi Arabia has a population of 27 million including 9 million foreign workers. According to an estimate, Saudi private firms have been employing more foreign workers than the locals. “Nine out of 10 private sector employees are foreigners,” it added.

The Ministry of Labour is trying to change the private sector’s culture from one of ‘importing cheap labour from abroad to developing national talent’, Saudi Arabian deputy minister of labour for planning and development Moufarrej Haqbani was quoted as saying in the statement.

The new provision will fine $640 (Rs 56,415) a year for each excess foreign workers employed by the private firms. However, the plan will not cover for those foreigners with Saudi mothers, citizens of other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain — or a household help.

In order to press private firms to hire more locals, the government last year introduced a quota system that diktats a mandatory minimum number of Saudi employees depending on companies’ size and sector. Firms which do not comply face restrictions on obtaining visas for their foreign workers.

MWPS seek compensation

Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) has launched a campaign to pressure the Saudi government to provide compensation to migrant workers following the deaths of two Asian workers a week ago due to explosives. The society has been lobbying for a proper compensation scheme that cover worksite accidents and labour accommodation tragedies. According to Labour Ministry figures, there were 25 work-related deaths in Bahrain last year, just over two months. Officials recorded a total of 145 worksite accidents in 2012 — which is one every two-and-a-half-days — in which 143 workers were injured, 63 of them seriously.

Published on: 20 November 2012 | The Himalayan Times