By Irfan Mohammed
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH —
Expatriate building caretakers who doubled as car washers in their respective neighborhoods have been earning a handsome income benefiting from their flexible work environment. However, many of them are currently going through tough times with the safe turf they have enjoyed for decades starting to thin out slowly.
Most these watchmen, hailing from south Asian or Arab African countries and known by the title “haris” in local dialect, hitherto merely performed the basic duties of their primary job and then looked for additional income by washing cars in their vicinity. In fact, they only gave secondary importance to guarding the buildings in their care and the tenants they were supposed to serve.
In view of the high costs and time-consuming visits to the regular car washes, most people, including citizens, prefer to get their cars washed by their building watchmen who render the service for a nominal monthly fee.
Considering the income they make by washing cars and doing other odd jobs, the building owners pay them very meager or no monthly salaries. “In fact, our salaries are the lowest for any category of workers but we complement our income by doing odd jobs or washing cars in the wee hours of night,” said one Asian watchman who did not want to be named.
These people, whose services have become indispensable in every Saudi neighborhood, nevertheless see tough times ahead.
In addition to the threat of a shrinking client base due to the impending departure of a large number of expatriate workers in the face of the ongoing uncertainty in the job market, the law enforcement agencies are intensifying inspections against car cleaners in the streets. This has jeopardized the building caretakers’ main source of income.
These watchmen are worried about their income falling further as many expatriates are likely to send their families back home because the cost of keeping them in the Kingdom is likely to rise exorbitantly with the government imposing a new levy on every member of the family, starting July. Once the families leave, the tenants are less likely to require their services for which they used to receive handsome handouts.
The frequent police checks also give the caretakers sleepless nights. In the past, raids by the authorities mainly targeted professional car washers, mostly illegal African immigrants, on major streets and roads while the building guards who doubled as car washers were largely ignored or went undetected.
“A small percentage of apartments in my building are vacant, which is not a major problem. I can make up for the loss by requesting the tenants to increase my reward by 10 percent,” said Abdullah Khan, a Pakistani watchman in Madain Fahad in south Jeddah.
He said though the less number of tenants gave him time to relax a bit with the reduced workload, it would definitely make a dent in his income from washing cars.
“The departure of a few expatriates has not really affected me. I have a fairly good number of Saudi clients but washing their cars has now become a challenging task,” said Imtiaz Khan, a Pakistani watchman in Safa district.
“Police stopped me twice this month and they asked for the registration documents of the car I was washing to ascertain that it belonged to my employer,” he said.
The Saudi law prohibits expatriates from seeking work with anyone other than their legal employer.
Noor Mian, a Bangladeshi watchman in Zahra district, said vacant apartments and frequent police checks have greatly affected his income.
Officials, on the other hand, believe the casual car wash in the streets distorts the city’s beautiful image and poses a hazard to the environment. It leads to improper littering on the roads, parks and other public places. The regulations also prohibit the discharge of wastewater on to the streets.
Some car cleaners were also detained by the authorities in the past for their involvement in criminal activities. An Asian car washer was charged with money laundering after he was caught with millions of riyals in his possession.
