DAMMAM: Deceptive recruitment activities by employment agencies may be at the root of the recent entry refusals many expatriate workers are experiencing when attempting to travel to Bahrain.
Among the expatriates denied entry into Bahrain across the 25-km King Fahd Causeway last week was 42-year-old Indian national Qamruddin Ali Ahmad. The refusal, at least from the Bahraini immigration point of view, was perfectly justified. Ahmad's profession on the iqama was mentioned as "aamil" (labor) and all expatriates with nonprofessional visas are not given on-arrival visas to Gulf Cooperation Council states.
Exceptions were being made at the land entry to Bahrain through the Causeway all these years. Now, however, Bahrain has decided to stop it completely in line with the broader agreement among GCC states.
The entire issue has brought new light on what is entirely an issue that is specific to the Kingdom. Thirty-seven-year-old Ahmad is not a daily wage laborer as his profession on the iqama suggests. In fact, Ahmad works as a chief accountant at a popular Dammam-based food products company and helps audit millions of riyals in annual business for his Saudi sponsor. He has completed nearly 13 years in the Kingdom and has helped his company hire more than a dozen expatriate employees from the Indian Subcontinent.
"I never knew about this profession business when I was hired by my sponsor during a job interview in Mumbai. He asked me about my background and work experience, and I enquired about his business. Then we got down to discussing the monetary package. After a mutual agreement we signed a contract, and I landed in Saudi Arabia in 1997. I got annual increments and within three years of my arrival I became the chief accountant at my firm," said Ahmad.
Everything went well for Ahmad until he decided to bring his family to join him. "I had all the papers in place, including my salary certificate and a copy of the management degree that I acquired from a prestigious university in Bangalore. But when I went to apply for a family visa, my file was thrown out. That is when I got the rude shock. Expatriates with labor visas cannot bring in their families. 'I am not a laborer,' I protested innocently. 'That is what it says on your iqama. Go check with your kafeel (sponsor) and then come back to us,' said the guy at the istiqdam office. He was right. As per the rules, as a labor category expat I was not allowed to bring in my family."
Ahmad protested with his management and wanted to get his profession changed. Those were the days when the nationalization process, or what is popularly called Saudization, was in full force. He was advised by his management not to change his profession. "Having a labor profession is the best bet at the moment," he was told by his sponsor. Ahmad agreed. His sponsor promised to help him get his family into the Kingdom through wasta, or insider influence, and he did.
Also, a labor visa did not allow Ahmad get a Saudi driving license. This rule was amended later and he got a driving license, as well. Ahmad is no longer bothered about his labor-category visa. "I stopped worrying on that count a long time back. I have my family here, and I have a steady job. This doesn't bother me at all," Ahmad told Arab News.
Up until last week, he could go to Bahrain via the Causeway and would help his firm's Bahraini subsidiary audit sales figures. Now he cannot.
Ahmad's case is not an exception. It is rather a rule. There are hundreds of expatriates in the Kingdom who are working in the best of jobs but are categorized as laborers, electricians, plumbers, masons etc. The reason is simple: Many categories of jobs have been reserved for Saudis. However, business owners who still want to hire expatriates circumvent the system by hiring them with other-category visas. The Labor Ministry has come down heavily on this practice and has even penalized a number of Saudi employers, though it has not stopped the practice altogether.
In some cases, expatriates who came on the "right category" visas saw their professions changed to lower category visas. Mohammad Azeem, a British national of Pakistani origin, was hired as a copywriter for an advertising firm in Alkhobar. "I had the profession correctly mentioned on my iqama. However, after two years when my iqama was given for renewal, my profession was changed to electrician. When I noticed that and approached the human resources department guys at my company, they told me it had to be changed to meet certain government obligations," he said.
Many engineers in the Kingdom also are misidentified on their iqamas. "One reason for that is the bureaucratic rigmarole that one has to go through to come into the Kingdom on an engineer visa," said Majed Hussain, a planning engineer based in Jubail. "If one has to come into the Kingdom on an engineer visa then one has to follow a very rigorous and cumbersome procedure. I have to get my engineering degrees attested by the Human Resources Development Ministry in my country. It has then to be approved and attested by the Saudi Embassy. That takes a lot of time. So people basically prefer to take the shorter route and come here on these low-category visas where you don't have to produce anything. Your employer knows your merit, and he has seen your certificates during the interview in your home country. That is it. It suits him and it suits us expats."
The big question that remains is how much the new ruling will curtail traffic flow and subsequent economic activity in Bahrain.
By SIRAJ WAHAB
© Arab News 2010
