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[chrisinjeddah]

The following article was just published in the all the major daily newspapers in South Africa. Sad, but very very true. Please read carefully before making going to Saudi Arabia. Especially schools in Jeddah. Personal experience says this is FAR more common than what can be imagined.

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SA citizens warned of job scam
17/07/2006 07:25 - (SA)

-Antoinette Pienaar, Beeld

Pretoria - South Africans working overseas must, under no circumstances, let an employer keep their passports in an attempt to blackmail them, warns an international organisation.

The International Organisation for Migration sounded the warning after hearing about South Africans stranded in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

This has emerged after employers apparently refused to hand back passports unless they were paid large sums of money.

An article in the organisation's bulletin Eye on Human Trafficking said several South Africans had been misled with promises of huge salaries since October last year.

A 15-year-old from Vereeniging said he and two men left for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in November last year after hearing at an agency that he could earn more than R12 000 a month as a waiter.

'Forget the big salary'

They were promised accommodation in a villa and also told meals would be provided.

On arrival, their employer, Modern Day Company (MDC), apparently immediately took their passports.

The teenager said: "They never explained clearly why they took our passports.

"When we walked into the villa, there were already a couple of South Africans who had tried for quite a while to get out. They told us we could forget about the R12 000 salary.

"The real income was about R1 300 a month and the manager took all the tips."

Some of the restaurants for which they had been hired apparently had not yet opened.

The teenager said: "There weren't any beds and we slept on mattresses on the floor the first evening.

"We said we wanted to return home, but MDC said we either had to stay for two years or each pay back R13 000 for expenses incurred."

Eight South Africans contacted the embassy after about a week and staff apparently threatened MDC with diplomatic action.

The young people were allowed to leave, but they had to pay for their flight home.

The Eye on Human Trafficking reported also on two women who were recruited in Durban to work in a coffee shop in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

It later transpired that the shop wasn't yet in existence.

They went to complain to the South African embassy in Dubai, where they heard there had been previous complaints.

One of the woman's parents paid more than R11 000 to the employer to get their daughter home.

Contravenes ILO regulations

The Gulf News reported in June that an official of the labour department in the United Arab Emirates confirmed that it was illegal to impound people's passports, but conceded it was a common practice.

This practice apparently contravenes the International Labour Organisation's convention of 1957 for the elimination of forced labour.

Karen Blackman of IOM in Pretoria said families of people who still were caught in a similar situation overseas could contact the organisation's helpline 0800 555 999.