Shake-up call to protect Saudi foreign workers

FOREIGN WORKERS: Calls have been made for a new government body to be set up to deal with affairs of foreign workers, including cleaners.

Human rights campaigners in Saudi Arabia have put forward proposals for a new government body to be set up to look after the affairs of expatriates working in the kingdom.

The National Human Rights Society (NHRS) has also proposed that the powers of the Labour Ministry and Passport Department relating to foreign workers be transferred to the new organisation.

The proposals come as part of a the study carried out by the NHRS on improving the working environment of foreign workers in the country, the Saudi Gazette reported on Sunday.

The society has already handed over the study to the authorities at the Ministries of Interior and Labour.

The study also recommends certain procedures to abolish the rules defining sponsorship.

They include an end to the practice of the employer holding passports of expatriate workers, doing away with no objection letters, allowing a foreign worker to bring his family to the Kingdom, employer’s consent to process Haj permit, marriage and family visits besides all terms restricting the employees’ freedom.

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