I have read with contempt a news in the newspaper "Arab News" of 27th June 2011 having title of "Ministry drawing up rules to phase out unskilled foreigners". The news is about the speech made by Labor Minister Adel Al Fakeih during his visit of the graduation ceremony of eighth batch of the Saudi-Japanese Automobile High Institute (SJAHI) in Jeddah.
I understand that Labor Minister wants to retain only skilled foreign workers in Saudi Arabia and phase out unskilled expat workers. He wants Saudis to give these positions and so trying to create jobs for Saudis which will be a lot of jobs. My objection is on his attitude reflected in his words used in the speech at the ceremony. He said "It is obvious that the unskilled foreign labor has invaded the country and are being detrimental to the economy of the country and the citizens".
This is not the right tone to discuss about expat unskilled workers who are and have been contributing so much to the development of the country. Till this time, there are very few institutes for Saudis to develop their technical education and other skills. Therefore, this unskilled labor has provided support in this sector which did not have Saudi work force. When I see Bangladeshis planting seeds on the center islands of streets or running fuel stations, Pakistanis doing physical work in making roads or constructing building, Philipinos dealing at the counter of restaurants and Yemenis running tyre shops at fuel stations, I ask myself why these are not run by Saudis? The reason these are not run by Saudis is that these tasks are physically hard, pay very little and one cannot run his family with these jobs. Similar are the jobs of driver and housemaids who are at duty for effectively 24 hours for salaries at little as 500 SAR per month even which is not even timely paid by many Saudi families on time.
I still have discounted the countless workers who are working at automobile repair shops, industries and offices, retail shops and Arabic restaurants. If these expat workers leave today, Saudi Arabia's life will become stand still and nobody will be there to replace these foreign unskilled labor. I believe that labor Minister should apologise and give credits to the unskilled labor who are and have been building Saudi Arabia for menial salaries, working conditions and duraton of hours which Saudis are not able to accept.
Just because he wanted to please the students at the graduation ceremony does not mean that he should say that these unskilled labor force are invaders of Saudi Arabia. These expats are not overstayers after Umrah or Hajj and have been officially given proper visa of Saudi Arabia. Some of them are on free visa but even that is done by Saudis to get money from issuing visas on yearly basis. The most important is that they are contributing to Saudi Arabian economy which could not be run without these unskilled foreign labor.
The words "Invaders" is shocking as no one can come to Saudi Arabia without proper visa. There is not even a tourist visa in Saudi Arabia for other areas except the holy cities. How can these unskilled foreign labor invade this country when for open vacancies, they are selected by Saudis, hired from their respective countries and then visas are arranged for them by the hiring company in Saudi Arabia?
I believe that Labor Minister Adel Al Fakeih should step out of his office, meet the expat unskilled labor and find how hard is their work and if Saudis can do the same who generally are very much wary of sun's heat even when they are born in the desert. In fact, Saudi youth should spend time in the sun to get used to sun's heat for taking unskilled jobs.
We should all give due credit to the people even when we want to replace them by others. Labor Minister should have said that "Foreign expat labor has contributed immensely to the development of Saudi Arabia and is doing it very well and now is the time for our Saudis to take more part in this development. Therefore, we shall give more focus to Saudi contribution from now on by reducing foreign vacancies and replacing these with local jobs". If he had said this statement, it would have been the recognition of hard labor that foreign labor is performing in Saudi Arabia and also have given the message to Saudis that he is developing vacancies for them.
I suggest that he should consider the contribution of foreign labor and acknowledge their efforts as without this hard work, Saudi Arabia would not have been what it is today.
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