Errant employers put expatriates in trouble

Nearly 10,000 Bangladeshis have been left stranded in Saudi Arabia for the last few months, as they could not renew residence permit for their employers' failure to pay premiums to a Saudi government organisation.
Saudi authorities are not allowing them to leave the kingdom, switch jobs or renew job contracts.
The migrant workers ran into trouble after their employers had defaulted on paying premiums to the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) for years in violation of the GOSI law.
Saudi authorities froze bank accounts of several hundred companies for breaching the law, said the workers quoting GOSI officials.
Bangladesh embassy officials in Riyadh said they were aware of the matter but didn't have any specific information on Bangladeshi workers, who now face the problem.
According to the kingdom's rules, Saudi companies have to pay 2 percent of foreign workers' salaries as premium for GOSI. A law has been in place for long to ensure that. But the authorities moved to enforce it strictly as part of implementation of a policy “Nitaqat” since September last year.
The policy calls for better regulation of foreign workers and it also makes it mandatory for Saudi companies to recruit 20 to 30 percent Saudis. During implementation of the policy, it was found that many companies had been defaulting on premiums.
Saudi Arabia, employing around 20 lakh Bangladeshis, significantly reduced the recruitment quota for Bangladeshi workers since early 2007. It also put restriction on switching jobs.
“The problem arose in recent months and many Bangladeshi workers became irregular,” said TAM Fakhrul Basher, former manager at Mohammad Fahad al Geither Establishment in Riyadh.
Basher said he was not aware that his employer Mohammad Fahad had not paid premium to the GOSI for a long time. He came to know about it two years back, said Basher, who has been working in the kingdom for 26 years.
“Because of it, we cannot renew our residence permits or even get an exit visa,” said Basher, who remains stranded in the kingdom with his wife.
Basher said nearly 10-12 thousand Bangladeshis are now in deep trouble because of their employers' failure to pay premiums to the GOSI.
He said even the body of Bangladeshi worker Anwar Hossain, who died of cardiac arrest in Saudi Arabia a few weeks ago, could not be sent back home for non-payment of premiums to the GOSI, he said.
Basher said his employer asked him and other employees to pay 300,000 Saudi Riyals each as premium money but it wasn't possible for them to pay the amount.
He then went to the Riyadh governor's office for permission to switch job, but couldn't get it. He later approached the foreigner assistance office, labour office and finally the passport office but failed to get any help from them.
“Not only me, several thousand Bangladeshis have become illegal and are now stuck here.”
Fazlur Rahman, an engineer in Riyadh, said Saudi employers thought they could avoid paying premiums to the GOSI. But the authorities are now very strict about the enforcement of the GOSI law and many foreigners, mainly Bangladeshis, are in big trouble.
“They have become irregular for their employers' fault. Those wishing to go back home are not allowed to leave the kingdom,” he told The Daily Star.
Shahidul Islam, Bangladesh ambassador in Riyadh, said he was aware of the issue and had been in touch with the Saudi authorities.
Wishing anonymity, another official at the embassy said it is easier to solve such problems, if a migrant worker contacts the embassy early. But it becomes very difficult to solve once it is late.