Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia
Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia (Arabic: العَمالَة الأَجْنَبِيَّة فِي السَعُودِيَّة, romanized: al-ʿamālah al-ʾāǧnabīyah fī as-Saʿūdīyah), estimated to number about 9 million as of April 2013,[1] [failed verification] began migrating to the country soon after oil was discovered in the late 1930s.
Initially, the main influx was composed of Arab and Western technical, professional and administrative personnel, but subsequently substantial numbers came from South and Southeast Asia.
Saudi Arabia deported thousands of Tigrayan migrants to Ethiopia after holding them unlawfully for six months to six years in formal and informal detention facilities across the kingdom.
[5] Infrastructure and development plans led to an influx of skilled and unskilled workers, principally Palestinians, Egyptians, Yemenis and others from Arab countries, but also Indians and Pakistanis, leading to a doubling of the Saudi population by 1985.
[5] From 1985, the declining oil price led to a decreased demand for foreign labour, resulting in a substantial drop in migration from Asia.
[5] However, at the same time, there was a significant increase of female "guest workers" from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines and Indonesia who filled roles in the services sector – particularly in hotels and as domestic servants.
[5] The Gulf War of 1991 sparked a series of expulsions of guest workers suspected of disloyalty, including the removal of 800,000 Yemenis.
[17] The results of the 2004 census indicates that only about 15 per cent of foreign workers are in the skilled category, with the remainder mostly working in agriculture, cleaning and domestic service.
[28] For example, a 2007 academic study of a Danish manufacturing company's Saudi subsidiary noted that a manager had to be European, a supervisor had to be Egyptian, Filipino employees often had technical roles, and Indians, the lowest in the hierarchy, worked in production.
[citation needed] Additionally Egyptians have long migrated to Saudi Arabia to take up professional jobs such as doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers, as have Filipinos to work in the health, oil and manufacturing sectors.
Foreign workers have been raped, exploited, under- or unpaid, physically abused,[32] overworked and locked in their places of employment.
The international organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) describes these conditions as "near-slavery" and attributes them to "deeply rooted gender, religious, and racial discrimination".
In 2002, Grand Mufti Abdul-Azeez ibn Abdullaah Aal ash-Shaikh argued that Islam required employers to honour their contracts and not intimidate, blackmail or threaten their workers.
In June 2011 Ruyati binti Satubi, an Indonesian maid, was beheaded for killing her employer's wife, reportedly after years of abuse.
[44] In January 2013 a Sri Lankan maid named Rizana Nafeek was beheaded after she was convicted of murdering a child under her care, an occurrence which she attributed to the infant choking.
[48] According to Amnesty International, thousands of Ethiopian migrants, including pregnant women and children, were arbitrarily detained in harsh conditions across the kingdom since March 2020.
The specific needs of pregnant and lactating women were also not fulfilled by the prison authorities and the new born babies, infants and teenagers were detained and kept in the same dire conditions as adults.
[49] On 8 October 2020, based on the investigation led by Telegraph, the European Parliament criticized Saudi Arabia for its treatment of Ethiopian migrants being held like slaves in COVID-19 detention camps.
A footage captured on phones smuggled inside by the migrants showed thousands of men, women and children with scars from wounds of beating, torture and disfiguring skin infections.
[50] Even after Saudi modified its sponsorship system in March 2021, it remains quite challenging to control the abuses that Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) face there.
[51] Between 2022 and 2023, according to Human Rights Watch, Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons and shot hundreds of Ethiopian migrants who wanted to cross Saudi-Yemen barrier for work at close range, in a pattern that is widespread and systematic.
