By Mohammed Al-Abdullah

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

DAMMAM — Saudi recruitment companies will have to deposit a bank guarantee of not less than SR250,000 to be granted licenses to assign housemaids to work for employers, sources close to the offices have said.

For each housemaid the bank guarantee should be SR5,000.

Under the new system of recruitment, housemaids will be recruited by these offices which in turn will assign them to employers for a probation period of three months after which their iqamas (residence permits) will be transferred to the sponsorship of employers.

In addition to bank guarantee, the conditions for obtaining license also include providing accommodation for housemaids before they are assigned to employers.

The sources said that recruitment companies are racing against time to obtain licenses so as to start their work especially that Indonesian housemaids are expected to start arriving in December.

They said the offices and companies are still waiting to obtain more details on the modalities of importing Indonesian housemaids including the recruitment cost, monthly salary etc.

Every national recruitment office will be allowed to recruit 200 housemaids from Indonesia to work with Saudi families.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Development has imposed new rules and regulations after the recruitment of Indonesian housemaids resumed after a hiatus of six years.

The sources also said that since the agreement on recruiting housemaids from Indonesia was announced, a sharp drop in recruitment from the Philippines has been noticed.

The recruitment of a housemaid from the Philippines will cost more than SR20,000.

Saudi recruitment offices recently concluded agreements with their Ethiopian counterparts to import housemaids from this east African country.