Thousands of Foreign Workers Remain Stranded in Saudi Arabia

Modern Saudi Arabia has in many ways been built by foreign labour.

There's an estimated 9 million overseas workers in the Kingdom, from countries such as India, Pakistan and the Philippines, doing everything from construction to domestic work.

But rising unemployment among Saudis prompted the government to announce an amnesty earlier this year for undocumented workers to get their papers in order or leave.

Earlier this month, that amnesty ended.

Garry Martinez runs Migrante - a Filipino migrant organisation.

“There's still thousands of Filipino who have been affected. A lot of Filipinos are still lining up outside our embassy and consulate, and there are a lot of calls from their families wondering how to repatriate their loved ones.”

He says there are now thousands of workers in Saudi Arabia wanting to return to the Philippines but who are not receiving adequate help.

“The Philippines officials in Saudi Arabia are not listening to their demands. That's why most Filipino workers have decided to put up a tent city outside our embassy in Riyadh and outside our consulate in Jeddah.”

And what are some of the issues that overseas labourers have faced while working in Saudi Arabia?

“Because of the Kafala system, the sponsorship program between the Philippines government and the Saudi Arabian government, the workers cannot transfer their job because they've signed the contract. Some of them have been mistreated, some of them have been raped, some of them have been working from 5am to 3am in the morning. They don't receive their salaries, their travel documents are withheld, and even their personal phone.”

Around ten per cent of Saudi Arabia's foreign workforce is believe to be living there illegally.

KV Shamsudeen runs the Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust in the United Arab Emirates, which helps Indian workers manage their finances.

He says many of the undocumented foreign nationals came on pilgrimage, stayed on to work and are mistreated by employers.

“Employers will exploit the salary and the accommodation and all the other facilities. And not only that, all the workers sometimes have to pay some amount of their salary to the sponsor who has given them the visa. So a lot of exploitation is happening. But when they legalise all the workers under a legal framework, that sort of exploitation won't be there.”

Shamsudeen believes the crackdown on illegal migrants isn't a sign of a longer term shift away from foreign labour in Saudi Arabia.

He says locals won't be willing to work the low-paid and often menial jobs that foreign workers do.

“That kind of work, locals won't do. So they'll need a large number of expatriate workers for at least the next 25 years. So when they streamline and legalise the expatriates, there will be a lot of chances for expatriates to again come to work in a legal way. So the salary scale will improves, other facilities like accommodation and transportation will improve - this will all be good for the expatriate workers.”

And Garry Martinez says despite the crackdown, Filipino workers will also continue to head to Saudi Arabia in future years.

“Saudi will be the one who suffers because they need the cheap labour, they need the migrant workers who the 'Three D' jobs - the dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs and no Saudi nationals are willing to replace them'.”