The Labour Ministry of Saudi Arabia will publish a blacklist of employers and recruitment offices accused of abuses in dealing with domestic workers.
The blacklisted names would be published on Musaned, the government website about licensed recruitment offices.
The move is aimed at protecting rights of the housemaids and eliminating the malpractice by recruitment agencies and citizens alike, Arab News website said yesterday quoting a media report.
Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia signed a deal on February 10 under which the Middle Eastern country would resume importing manpower from Bangladesh gradually. Primarily they would take domestic help. The process remained stalled from 2008 until January 31 this year.
However, the move to send housemaids drew much criticisms in the wake of numerous reports of abuse and torture of the Bangladeshi women in Saudi Arabia. In the face of torture, they return to country after a few months. Bangladeshi women have been facing abuses also in Hong Kong, officials say.
On the latest step to address the abuses of housemaids, Majed bin Anzan, director of business development and sales at Alam Company, said this step would prevent recruitment agencies and citizens from abusing household workers.
The Labour Ministry would introduce the blacklist to the new version of Musaned, currently under development. “The blacklist will feature the names of citizens who delayed maids’ pay, withheld their passports or violated their rights,” he said during a workshop on domestic labour visas, Arab News said.
“It is unacceptable to allow some citizens who abuse domestics to recruit new ones without punishment,” he said. “This practice against workers harms the Kingdom’s reputation in labour-exporting countries and affects the future of the whole recruitment process.”
Yahya Al-Maqbool, head of the recruitment committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Musaned would streamline the recruitment market and resolve all obstacles in the recruitment process.
“Domestics must be protected from mistreatment by some employers,” he added.
