Foreign Workers: Saudi Arabia - Research Paper Example

Due Foreign Workers: Saudi Arabia From a historical perspective, Saudi Arabia has always strongly relied on foreign workers for its economic growth and development. After the oil book of the 1970’s, a great deal of construction and economic activities started to take place in the country. There was a big need to bring in millions of foreign workers to work in various economic sectors. Saudi culture and society has always been very open and welcoming of foreign workers from all parts of the world. Currently, there are more than six million foreign workers in the country and this represents 50% of the total workforce. According to Eleanor (37-34) there have been some issues of mistreatment of such workers such as not being paid salaries on time or bad treatment by their employers. Foreign workers are employed under the sponsorship system in Saudi Arabia as well as other Gulf countries. Most workers come to Saudi Arabia through an invitation from their employers and they make a working contract with them. The employer can be an enterprise, an individual or even the State, when it concerns a post in the public sector example a doctor or an engineer. This system is highly criticized by international human rights NGOs and it creates a series of grave human rights violations, for example the ICERD. Employers behold migrant workers’ passports and therefore workers are totally at their mercy as they limit their liberty of movement. They are barred from changing jobs and cannot leave their place of work. They are mistreated and denied their salary. Generally speaking, Saudi culture and its people have treated workers well. Workers can take part in all types of social communication but should not talk about political issues because even Saudis do not. Asian countries such as Pakistan and India have the largest foreign workers in the country. There is a big concept of unity among all these workers. Workers try to stay within their own communities. For example, Pakistanis stay among their unified community and Filipinos stay in their own as well (Codesman 413). Many other Arab countries like Yemen, Sudan or Jordan also have workers in the country. Many of these countries such as Pakistan or Yemen share very similar cultures and traditions with Saudi Arabia which makes it easier for the workers to become part of the Saudi society. Saudi culture looks at every one as equal and same and therefore treats foreign workers as a big family as well and they work in all parts of the country. Saudi Arabia also enjoys very good political and social relations with the West, the US in particular and many Americans actively work in the country as well. Saudi people also wanted to be united with these workers and treat them well and with dignity Human rights have also recognized how foreigners detained in Saudi Arabia have been denied Daryl (2003). Human Rights Watch recognized how foreigners detained in Saudi Arabia have been denied consular visits and forced to sign confessions that they could not read. This report included cases in which the embassies and families of the condemned men were not well-versed of the executions until after they were carried out e.g. beheading. According to Whitson (135) an executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, Saudi Arabia’s dilemma run much deeper than the terror attacks that are claiming the lives of innocent civilians. Saudi government invited a Human Rights Watch delegation to visit the kingdom for talks with officials last year, but have not yet responded to numerous requests for authorization to conduct a field research, including meeting with victims of abuse. Mostly India, Bangladesh and the Philippines workers who had recently returned from Saudi Arabia conducted the interviews (Madden 240). The report show the failure of the Saudi government to implement its own labor laws in the face of considerable abuses of foreign workers by their employers.Whitson also found men and women in conditions resembling slavery this cases demonstrates that the Saudis are turning a blind eye to systematic abuses against foreign worker. Human Rights Watch examined gender discrimination this is through evidence from Asian women who had recently worked in Saudi Arabia the report highlights the widespread practice of forced, around-the-clock confinement of women in unsafe conditions. In other cases reported, some 300 women from India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines reported working 12-hour shifts, six days a week, cleaning hospitals in Jeddah. At the end of the long working day, they would return to crowded houses which were in the make of a dormitory where 14 women would share one small room lined with absurd beds. The women would be locked from outside thus denied freedom of movement for the two or three years of their contract. This should be a criminal offense under Saudi law as the Human Rights Watch says of the forced imprisonment of workers and more so women. The report also included four cases of women who were sufferers of forced confinement and sexual abuse including rape cases. In all this, the perpetrators did not face criminal investigation or prosecution three of whom were alleged rapists. There were also women who were serving sentences on illegal pregnancies as the Human Rights Watch found in a prison in Riyadh. The Saudi Arabia’s legal system is faced with persistent gender discrimination coupled with law enforcement officials’ indifference to women’s complaints, places them at great risk as noted by Whitson. In addition to forced confinement and the danger of sexual violence is only heightened. It was disclosed in May that there are 8.8 million foreigners in Saudi Arabia, a figure significantly higher than any that the government has previously reported. This means that there is almost one foreign resident for every two Saudi citizens with a local population of about 17 million. There are also 500,000 workers from Indonesia, and another 350,000 from Sri Lanka, the majority of who are women. This report included 25 specific recommendations to various Saudi government officials, such as Crown prince Abdullah, and the ministers of interior, labor, and justice. These include one that they should take immediate action to inform all foreign workers in the kingdom of their rights under Saudi and international law. Secondly Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances. Therefore, they should suspend implementation of death sentences for Saudi citizens and foreigners, until it can be determined independently that torture was not used and confessions were not coerced. They should also halt the arrest and imprisonment of women who become pregnant voluntarily or because they were victims of rape. Forced confinement of workers should be abolished as they impose substantial penalties on employers who carry on the practice, and provide fair and equal compensation to the victims. Bring interior ministry practices into compliance with the Vienna convention on consular relations, which is the international treaty that establishes the right of consular officials to prompt notification about the arrest of their nationals. In general the principle of non- discrimination should be applied in observing rights and freedom, and that many rights and freedoms should be enjoyed by all persons living in a given state. All citizens must be Muslims; freedom of religion does not exist. Islam is the official religion, and the government prohibits the public practice of other religions. The government declared the Holy Quran and the Sunni (tradition) of the Prophet Muhammad to be the country’s constitution. It bases its legitimacy on governance according to the precepts of the thorough conservative and strict interpretation of the Sunni branch of Islam and discriminates against other branches of Islam argues Jerichow (340). Though Saudi Arabia’s culture is based on Islamic laws, it treats all equally. Non-Muslims in the country are allowed to practice their beliefs and ways of doing things in private but not in public environment. In all more than one quarter of Saudi Arabias foreign work force is non-Muslim. These are Indian Hindus, Buddhists from Thailand and Nepal, and Christians from countries such as India, the Philippines and Eritrea. Once dead, the steep cost of shipping a body is about $3,000, equivalent to many workers annual wage and must be paid by Saudi employers, some of whom try to shirk the responsibility. Immigrants remain to be held in Saudi Arabia for as long as six months while the government processes their visa on the dead workers passport, as the employers raise money. Their bodies are immediately taken to a designated hospital morgue. In cases of abnormal death, the bodies are often not released until local police complete an investigation. As the diplomats say among the 1.4 million strong communities of Indian workers here, some 70% of the deaths result from causes such as traffic and industrial accidents. In political freedom, freedom of speech and the press are restricted as well as criticism of the government. They banned trade unions , political organizations and public demonstrations. The Saudi government is an active censor of internet function within its borders. Recently, the internet has become a tool for dissent; since the arrest of prominent Saudi blogger and reformist Fouad al-Farhan there has been somewhat of a crackdown on online dissent. Consequently, he landed in jail; a case that was without charges after the criticisms targeting prominent Saudi personalities. Though political parties are banned, some political dissidents were freed in the 1990s on the condition that they disband their political organizations. In 1990s the government created a written constitution due to the slow period of political liberalization in the kingdom, the advisory consultative council, the latter being an appointed delegation of Saudi scholars and professionals that are allowed to advise the king. Rashid (2005), states that western businesses are flourishing in the country and business ethics is a key foundation of any successful business that takes place in the country. A person often greets Saudis with the word “Asamalaikum”, meaning welcome in the local Arabic language. In all, foreign workers are happy working in the country and more are coming with each passing day. Conclusion In recent years, the goal of replacing foreign workers with Saudi nationals has been on the rise. More than half of the population in Saudi Arabia is under the age of 17 as it maintains a population growth rate of over 3.6%. So far, they have concentrated mainly on expulsing several hundred thousands illegal foreign workers. Yet, replacing these workers with Saudi nationals has proven difficult because employers are unwilling to pay higher wages and the Saudis are not willing to take lower paying jobs in domestic services or construction. As long as foreign workers are cheap and not capable or reluctant to complain, there will be a demand for them. Their deliberate marginalization remains to be tackled. The FIDH and the EOHR recommend the Committee on the Abolition of Racial Discrimination to urge the Saudi authorities to condemn the sponsorship practices and develop programmes that prevent physical abuses, restrictions to the freedom of movement and unfair conditions of work. They should also reinforce the information and statistics on foreign workers by provision of legal assistance to them, prosecute and condemn all acts of negligence in respect to international standards governing the right to a fair trial, recognition of the right to proper representation to foreign workers and the right to equal treatment at work was another subject to be observed and reinforce measures that fight illegal recruitment, without having the option to deportation. They should also provide regular inspections of agencies of foreign recruitment and of workplaces. Finally, they should promote the integration of the migrant populations into the Saudi society. Works cited Codesman, Anthony. Saudi Arabia enters the 21st Century. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003. 413. Daryl, Champion. The Paradoxical Kingdom Saudi Arabia and the momentum of reform. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Eleanor, Doumato. Women and the Stability of Saudi Arabia Middle East Report. 15 pars. Jul. Aug, 1991. 34-37. Jerichow, Anders. The Saudi file: People, Power, Politics. Palgrave Macmillan Publishing, 1998. 340. Madden, Andrew. Saudi Arabia. Lonely Planet Publications, 2004. 208. Rashid, Nasser. & Shaheen, Esber. “Saudi Arabia: All You Need to Know”. Missouri: International Institute of Technology, 1995.  Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Commercial Office. 12 April 2010 . Sarah, Whitson, Bad Dreams: Exploitation and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia. 2004. 135. US Department of Commerce: Country Report on Saudi Arabia.12 April 2010 . Read More