Cairo: Saudi labour authorities have embarked on obligating firms engaged in overseas recruitment of domestic workers to abide by fee limits of hiring, Saudi media reported.
The kingdom’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has set maximum fee for such labour recruitment, standing at SR9,500 from Uganda; SR10,000 from Thailand; SR10,870 from Kenya; SR13,000 from Bangladesh; and SR17,000 from the Philippines, the Saudi news agency SPA said. The rates are exclusive the value-added tax.
The ministry’s step aims to regulate market recruitment and price governance to ensure quality services and boost labour market attractiveness, SPA added.
Non-committal recruitment offices will face shutdowns, the ministry’s spokesman Saad Al Hamad said.
“We will close down the recruitment offices if they don’t commit themselves to this,” he told Saudi television Al Ekhbariya. He added that violators could have their licences withdrawn.
The cost cap was made public a day after Saudi Arabia and the Philippines announced reaching an agreement to resume dispatch of Philippine labour including domestic workers to the kingdom starting from November.
