Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The hiring of domestic workers from Uganda has been in disarray following the cancelation of many contracts in the wake of the lifting of institutional quarantine by the Saudi government.

It is expected that about 80 percent of previous contracts are facing cancelation, according to sources at the Saudi recruitment offices. The cancelation would impede the arrival of an estimated 20,000 workers, mostly before the holy month of Ramadan.

The sources revealed that Saudi Arabia’s decision to scrap institutional quarantine would result in canceling many Ugandan domestic labor contracts that also included the quarantine fee.

The recruitment agencies in Uganda had made unreasonable hike in fee for inoculation against coronavirus as well as their brokerage fee.

They noted that the amounts sought by the Ugandan recruitment offices in the name of coronavirus vaccines alone reached SR3,000 by exploiting Saudis’ limited options for domestic workers.

This situation prompted the Saudi recruitment offices to cancel contracts concluded before the lifting of the quarantine decision. They are planning to sign new contracts after canceling the earlier ones.

The number of transactions of domestic help recruitment ranges between 50-100 between Ugandan and Saudi recruitment offices in a day, and the value of one recruitment bill is up to SR17,000.

Hakim Al-Khunaizi, an investor in the recruitment field, said that the Ugandan contracting offices have raised the brokerage charges after the Philippines’ decision to temporarily suspend sending domestic workers since last November.

The contracting offices raised the brokerage value continuously, bringing the price of one transaction to $200, he pointed out.