Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Philippines has eased conditions for the recruitment of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia as demand surges ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, despite continuing strains over the execution of a Filipina maid in late January for murder.

Saudi recruitment offices will now be able to deal with four manpower exporting agencies instead of two, in a move that is also expected to reduce the costs of bringing workers into the country, Saudi Gazette reported.

Hakeem Al-Khinaizi, owner of a recruitment office in Dammam, said Saudi recruiters can start setting up offices in the Philippines and open contract talks. He said it will cost about 17,000 Saudi riyals (US$4,629) to import a domestic worker from the Philippines, plus 2,000 riyals ($533) for the visa fee and 850 riyals ($226) in taxes.

Al-Khinaizi said the changes will help overcome recruitment delays that occur when a maid refuses to board her flight to Saudi Arabia at the last minute or is found to be carrying an infectious disease.

“In such cases, the recruitment offices in the Philippines will have to start the procedures from the beginning, which will require more time,” he said.

About a quarter of the estimated 2.3 million Filipinos working overseas are based in Saudi Arabia, which most employed as domestic workers. A maid earns a fixed monthly salary of 1,500 riyals (US$400).

Despite the importance of the Saudi employment market to the Philippines, relations have been strained by accusations of maids being mistreated  by employers and the execution of a 39-year-old Filipina in January for murder after her family was unable to pay so-called blood money under traditional Sharia law.

Join the Conversation

1183 Comments

  1. Good – I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your web site. I had no trouble navigating through all tabs and related info ended up being truly easy to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it at all. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, web site theme . a tones way for your customer to communicate. Nice task.

  2. An impressive share, I simply given this onto a colleague who was doing a little bit evaluation on this. And he actually bought me breakfast as a result of I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the deal with! However yeah Thnkx for spending the time to debate this, I really feel strongly about it and love studying extra on this topic. If potential, as you turn out to be expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog publish!

  3. Its like you learn my mind! You appear to understand so much about this, such as you wrote the guide in it or something. I feel that you just can do with a few percent to force the message home a bit, however instead of that, this is fantastic blog. A great read. I’ll certainly be back.

  4. Good ?V I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your site. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs and related info ended up being truly easy to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it in the least. Reasonably unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or something, website theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Nice task..

  5. The next time I read a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as a lot as this one. I imply, I do know it was my option to learn, however I truly thought youd have one thing fascinating to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you might repair should you werent too busy in search of attention.