Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH – Expatriates, who are being fleeced by middlemen and expediters to get their work done at passport and labor offices, have been advised to benefit from the Passport Department’s e-service Abshir.  



The Jawazat charges only government fees to rectify the status of expatriates, said Passport Department spokesman Ahmad Al-Luhaidan, adding: “We are not responsible for any other fees charged by middlemen.” He said the Abshir service will stop the use of middlemen.



Last month, Interior Minister Prince Muhammad Bin Naif launched the free e-service for individuals and employers. The new e-service provides online issuing and renewal of residence permits, issuing exit-rentry visa, exit visa, and services relating to huroob cases.



To be able to use the Abshir services, one has to register on its site (www.epassport.gov. sa) and activate the registration by confirming his ID.



“We are working to turn the Passport Department into an e-service entity where people will be finalizing their issues online without the need to approach us,” Al-Luhaidan told Saudi Gazette.



Some 500,000 people are expected to have benefited from these online services so far, he said.



However, middlemen and expediters are defending the high fees they charge for their services.



“Lately people have been complaining about the high fees we charge, but they do not take into consideration the long hours we spend waiting in long queues at passport and labor offices,” said Abdulrahman Jabri, a middleman.



According to him, middlemen charge a standard fee ranging between SR1,500 and SR2,000 for normal work. But if the work is complicated and involves a number of processes, then an extra fee is charged.



But many people have bitter experiences of dealing with middlemen and expediters. One such person is Abdulqadir Abdulrahman, a Sudanese taxi driver, who has been waiting for his and his family’s iqamas for the past four months. He paid SR6,000 to a middleman to get the iqamas renewed, but nothing has been done so far. The middleman does not even answer his phones.



Abdulrahman, who moved to the Kingdom some 30 years ago fleeing a war in Africa, fears that he might have to pay an additional SR6,000 or even more to the middleman to get back the iqamas.



Last week in the Friday sermon, the Grand Mufti charged expediters in passport and labor offices of fleecing expatriate workers who want to rectify their legal status during the grace period.



Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Alsheikh said the grace period for rectification of workers’ status is marred by the greed of expediters who demand huge amounts of money, placing unbearable financial burdens on hapless foreign workers.



The Grand Mufti said the expediters stall the paperwork and bargain with workers to extort large amounts of money.  He described the money earned in this manner as “haram” and “ill-gotten”. 



He said such actions have made expatriate workers hostage to the system at a time when the government was striving to organize the labor market by rectifying the status of undocumented workers.