[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Low-Paid Migrant Workers Narrate Their Plight

From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@freelists.org>
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 03:04:50 +0100
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**http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=76801&d=25&m=1&y=2006

Wednesday, 25, January, 2006 (25, Dhul Hijjah, 1426)



      Low-Paid Migrant Workers Narrate Their Plight
      Abdul Hannan Faisal Tago, Arab News 
        
      RIYADH, 25 January 2006 - Hussein Harazey's situation is one shared by 
many of the Kingdom's low-paid migrant workers. After selling his land at home 
in Bangladesh to pay for his visa, he told Arab News it would take years to buy 
back the properties that his family relies on.

      "I spent SR12,000 for my visa, including a one-way ticket and about 
SR2,000 for processing. I sold all the land and property my family owns to pay 
the employment agency's fees for the work visa," Harazey said. "Now I earn only 
SR300 in a month so it may take me six years to repay what I owe."

      Although accommodation, food, transportation and medical care are 
provided by the company, it seems to these workers that their basic monthly 
payment of SR300 for an office cleaner and SR350 for a tea boy is very little, 
considering the differences in living standards between their country of origin 
and Saudi Arabia.

      Harazey said his family of eight relied completely on the land that he 
sold. He was told by the agency in his home country that he would be offered 
the opportunity to work overtime, but has so far been offered no overtime. The 
agency in Bangladesh that processed his visa operates legally there but what 
they are doing is illegal, he said. He said the agency usually charged both the 
Saudi firm and the applicant. "That is how they make money," he explained.

      Migrant workers, mostly from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the 
Philippines, were eager to talk to Arab News about how difficult it is to 
achieve the financial goals that were the only reason they came to Saudi Arabia.

      A Bangladeshi cleaner working for a big company in Riyadh said that it 
took him four years to get into the black, after borrowing SR7,000 from his 
family to pay for the processing of his visa. Now he works 14 hours a day, 
including overtime, in order to send something home.

      Some workers complain of racial bias regarding salaries.

      A Bangladeshi tea boy said that he gets a salary of between SR300 and 
SR350 while a Filipino doing the same job receives SR600 to SR1,000. "This is 
obviously bias from the company; though we are doing the same job, we are not 
getting the same salary," he said. This low salary was also imposed on Filipino 
contractual workers, placed by Filipino employment agencies, in Makkah during 
Ramadan and Haj.

      One Filipino worker said that he was happy that he is in Makkah so he can 
easily perform Umrah and Haj. He told Arab News that his salary was SR300 month 
plus SR180 in food allowance. In fact, he asked Arab News for financial 
assistance so he could go home with some small gifts for his family.

      A public relations consultant in Riyadh said there were recruitment 
agencies everywhere in the world that view poor workers as milk cows. They 
charge hefty fees to Asian workers in desperate need of any opportunity to live 
and work with the hope that they will be able to send money home. Some agencies 
are less than scrupulous about checking the age of the workers as well.

      The PR consultant said that there was a cleaner at his office who was 
obviously younger than he should be. "On his passport, he is 22 but judging by 
his behavior, I imagine he's only 15 or 16. The poor boy is missing his 
childhood."
     


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[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Low-Paid Migrant Workers Narrate Their Plight

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