Job Discussion Forums

[teechagimme]

Right now there is amnesty, so there aren't any fines but this is all that I really know. Has anyone experienced this? It was a complete accident. I couldn't actually read or understand the date as it was written and I was having some trouble getting a pet export permit as well as a plane ticket on an airline that would allow my 16 year old cat to fly in the cabin. All of that hassle had me at the airport one day late and they wouldn't let me leave. I've been staying with a friend and waiting on my now former employer to move things along. They tell me a different story just about every other day.
I'm in a relatively privileged position and although I will miss my Easter dinner with my family, I'm not hurting too much over this. However, it seems to me that these penalties don't really fit the "crime." I'd be fine if they'd fingerprinted me and told me never to come back or something like that but the idea that one can't leave without going through some long process that involves ones employer seems like a serious human rights issue. What happens to the poor Indonesian maids who are sorta being trafficked in the first place?

[scot47]

There should be special rules for those with familiars. I have forwarded this suggestion to the Commission for the Suppression of Vice.

[abayababy]

This forum educated me on the visa rules before I came here, so I was well aware one could not leave the country without "permission" from one's employer. Early on, I tried to explain this to one of my new colleagues who simply could not believe that she couldn't just go to the airport and leave anytime she wished. I don't really see this as a serious human rights violation, unless one views it from a Western perspective. It's simply the law of the land. It's not Kansas.

[spiral78]

[abayababy]

Then don't come to Saudi in the first place. Their laws are no secret. BTW, I don't know a soul who has wished to leave the country, for good or for holiday, who has been denied. The OP didn't follow the letter of the law and is now stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare of which she is partly to blame. Not saying the law makes sense or is right. It just is what it is.

[scot47]

I lived and worked in Bulgaria from 1991 to 1996, As a resdient foreigner I had to get an exit visa. They had a system which was surprisingly similar to the Saudi Iqama. I had a Foreigner's ID and had to surrender that to get my UK passport before I could travel outside BG.

[johnslat]

Dear abayababy,


I don't think it's strictly a "Western perspective"

"Cuba's move to scrap exit visas for ordinary people leaves only a handful of countries keeping this communist-era travel restriction on their citizens, including North Korea and Uzbekistan. "

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan-exit-visas/24834087.html

"I don't really see this as a serious human rights violation . . . " I wonder if human right violation can be classified in ascending categories of "seriousness." I suppose they can, but a violation IS a violation.

And as for its being a "human rights violation, please see below:

"During the fascist rule in Italy, an exit visa was required from 1922 to 1943. Nazi Germany required exit visas from 1933 until its collapse in 1945.[26] The Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies required exit visas both for emigrants and for those who wanted to leave the USSR for some time.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13, part 2, proclaimed in 1948 that "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." Yet, some countries still have a requirement that an individual obtain an exit visa (i.e., permit) to leave the country. This happens mostly in countries where there is political, economic or social turmoil that results in a rise in emigration. Sometimes this requirement also applies to foreign nationals.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have an exit visa requirement, particularly for foreign workers. Hence at the end of a foreign worker's employment period, the worker must secure clearance from his/her employer stating that the worker has satisfactorily fulfilled the terms of his/her employment contract or that the worker's services are no longer needed. The exit visa can also be withheld if there are pending court charges that need to be settled or penalties that have to be meted out.

The communist government in Nepal requires citizens leaving the country to work abroad to present an exit visa issued by the labor ministry. This document is called a labor permit and needs to be presented to immigration to leave the country

Uzbekistan is the last remaining former USSR country that still requires an exit visa, which is valid for a two-year period. There has been explicit UN criticism of this practice, which can be a means of controlling political dissidents ("exit visa can be easily used to stop human rights defenders from leaving the country").

The government of Cuba announced in October 2012 its plans to remove exit visa requirements to be effective January 14, 2013, albeit with some exceptions."

"I don't know a soul who has wished to leave the country, for good or for holiday, who has been denied."

I have.

Regards,
John

[massiveg]

although as you all probably know many unskilled workers cannot leave the country till their employers get replacements and this can and does go on for ages. compound I used to live on, the sri Lankan cleaners and maintenance often worked for six months or more l