Ethiopian house helps back to Saudi Arabia after an absence of four years
Ethiopian house helps return to KSA after a 4-year gap
2019-01-09 19:36:00
Under the new agreement, Ethiopian recruitment offices will give training to domestic helps before they head for work in the Kingdom. — Photo courtesy Al-Riyadh
Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH — Ethiopian housemaids are coming back to the Kingdom after an absence of about four years, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported on Wednesday quoting sources in the recruitment sector.
Officials at recruitment companies and offices said under a recent agreement signed by the labor ministers of the two countries, the monthly salary of Ethiopian housemaids would be increased from SR850 to SR1,000.
They said the housemaids will be available for rent at recruitment companies and offices, which will also be responsible for issuing the work visas for them.
The sources said unlike in the past, individuals will not be able to obtain recruitment visas to hire domestic helps from Ethiopia.
They said under the new agreement, the cost of recruiting a housemaid from Ethiopia will be around SR4,000 for a two-year work contract.
During the term of the contract, the Ethiopian office that recruited the housemaid will be responsible for substituting her if she escaped from her employer. The office will also be responsible for finding a replacement if the housemaid refused to work for a period three months.
The sources said the Ethiopian recruitment offices will train the housemaids and enlighten them about the Saudi customs and traditions.
They said the requests for the recruitment of the Ethiopian maids represent about 50 percent of all hiring requests received by the recruitment companies and offices.
They also said the agreement has blocked the path for illegal recruitment brokers.
About four years ago, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development has put a temporary hold on the recruitment of Ethiopian women as house helps after a number of them were involved in crimes that created outrage in Saudi Arabia. Ethiopia retaliated by preventing men and women house helps from traveling to the Kingdom.
According to official statistics, the Kingdom had 2.42 million house helps by the end of the third quarter of 2018, consisting of 1.64 million men representing about 68 percent and 781,600 women representing 32 percent.
The house helps are annually paid a total salary of SR5.4 billion. The average monthly salary of a male worker is SR2,113 while that of a woman is SR1,581.
There are 1.39 million drivers who represent about 58 percent of house helps in the Kingdom.