Saudi Labour Ministry rejects plea for Nitaqat grace period extension June 2, 2013 , By K.P.M. Basheer The government has rejected the request for extending the grace period, pointing out that it was a one-time gesture made by King Abdulla. The prospect of Saudi Arabia extending the three-month grace period to legalise the work and residency status of illegal foreign workers in the kingdom has faded with the Saudi Labour Ministry giving a definite no to an extension request. Embassies of several labour-exporting countries as well as associations of Saudi industrialists and businessmen had urged the government to extend the grace period. The expats now have exactly a month to go for the July 3 deadline. Saudi Arabia has eight million immigrant workers who hail from nearly 100 countries. Of them, an estimated two million are Indians; a large chunk of them from Kerala. However, based on the number of applications for Emergency Certificates (EC) received by the Indian missions there, workers from Uttar Pradesh top the list of undocumented Indian expats. Saudi media reported that the government had rejected the request for extending the grace period, pointing out that it was a one-time gesture made by King Abdulla. Hence, from July 4, illegal expats would be rounded up and sent to jail. Indian journalists working for Saudi media outlets told Business Line on Sunday that diplomats of some of the countries (whose citizens work in the kingdom in lakhs) had, as a last-ditch effort, urged the Labour Ministry to consider one more extension. They had pointed out that their missions were finding it hard to meet the heavy demand for emergency documents from the immigrants. These documents, after ratified by the ministry, will let the workers go home and return on a new visa. The journalists noted that there have been long lines of people in front of the Philippine, Indian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi missions. At many embassies, people were camping out day and night. The Indian Embassy has received about a lakh applications for EC and it was issuing 2,000 ECs a day. Saudi Arabia had, against the backdrop of the Arab Spring and mounting unemployment of Saudi youth, announced a programme called ‘Nitaqat’ nearly two years ago aimed at replacing a section of the immigrant labour force with Saudi nationals. Nitaqat (which means ranges or categories) insists that at least one-tenth of the workforce in private and public sector companies and businesses should be Saudis. Nitaqat colour-codes the companies on the basis of their level of compliance with the Saudization norm. The employers had been reminded of the regulation frequently and April 3 had been set as the deadline. However, in view of the woes of lakhs of immigrants, the king granted the three-month grace period. Illegal expats Along with the Nitaqat, the government also took steps to weed out the millions of illegal workers in the country. Under the Saudi system, every imported worker needs to have a sponsor -- a company, a business or an individual employer. It is through the sponsor that the worker get his iqama (residency permit) and work licence. Expats are not allowed by the law to work outside the sponsor or outside the profession for which he was hired. But there are lakhs of workers violating these norms. These workers bribe their sponsors or pay a portion of their wages to the sponsor every month for being allowed to work outside the sponsor. Of late, the illegal labour market has grown so big that the Saudi authorities fear for the stability and security of the country. Hence the government recently allowed the illegal expats to regularise their work and residency status by relaxing the norms. For instance, the workers are allowed to change their sponsors without the permission of the existing sponsor. please read
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 07:07:54 +0000
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