Saudi Arabia: Filipinos lead in domestic worker recruitment fees
Residents in the kingdom can now recruit domestic workers from 33 countries
Cairo: A Saudi government portal responsible for domestic labour affairs in the kingdom has updated the average fees for recruiting female domestic workers from various countries, with the Philippines being the highest.
According to the Musaned platform linked to the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources, hiring a female domestic worker from the Philippines costs an average of SR14,309, including VAT, with an arrival duration of 57 days.
Recruitment costs and arrival durations from other countries are as follows: SR4,993 and 39 days from Ethiopia, SR6,255 and 51 days from Uganda, SR9,003 from Bangladesh and SR13,581 from Sri Lanka.
Currently, recruitment services for these workers are available from a total of 33 countries, including recent additions such as Sierra Leone, Burundi, and Tanzania. To regulate the domestic labor market, Saudi authorities have implemented new rules.
The Ministry of Human Resources launched Musaned as the official recruitment platform, facilitating information on rights, duties, visa issuance, recruitment requests, and contractual relations between employers and workers. Recent regulations stipulate that domestic workers must be at least 21 years old, ensuring contractual rights. Their dues are considered first-degree debts, and contracts must have a fixed duration, renewable annually if not specified otherwise.
Under the new rules, domestic workers’ daily working hours are capped at 10 hours, with a mandatory 24-hour paid rest period weekly.
Employers are strictly prohibited from withholding workers’ passports, personal documents, or belongings. Saudi Arabia’s domestic labor sector encompasses a range of roles such as housekeepers, drivers, maids, cleaners, cooks, guards, farmers, live-in nurses, tutors, and nannies.