The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is known for its zero tolerance to drug trafficking. It even warns future immigrants at its consulates located in various countries of capital punishment if they failed to abide to the law.The Saudi government had sought to fight crime at all levels within the Kingdom. It decided to reinforce certain laws which were not strictly implemented in the past. In 2010, all Indian immigrants who were coming to Saudi Arabia to work had to get a Police Clearance Certificate first. These certificates are issued by passport offices in India. Female immigrants are not however compelled to provide a Police Clearance Certificate before coming to Saudi to work.
This law was reinforced at the time when the Kingdom was reported to have the highest number of Indian prisoners in the gulf region (Source: Arab News). An Indian official said this law was going to help ensure that the Indian community in Saudi Arabia was free of offenders...read more.
The question that comes to my mind is this: It has been over one year now, has this law helped to decrease the number of Indian citizens who have broken the law in Saudi Arabia? Plus, is there any guarantee that individuals with clean police records would not resolve to crime later?
The point I am trying to bring out is the fact that there are so many Indians who come into the Kingdom to work and some end up finding themselves jobless for one reason or the other. Last week, I posted an advert on expatriates.com because our firm needed 2 persons for work. I had over a hundred applications in my inbox only 2 hours after posting this advert. More than 85% of the applicants were Indians. They lived in Jeddah and were prepared to transfer sponsorship to any potential employer. Most of them had studied in India but had moved to Saudi Arabia to work. Many wrote desperate cover letters and were pleading for a chance to work for our firm despite the fact that they were too qualified for the given positions.
I spent the whole week asking myself how these desperate individuals managed to go about taking care of themselves in these hard times. Maybe some had the support of their families but what about those who didn't have that? They came to this country to work and they found themselves in this kind of situation. Does the Indian government know the situation of these individuals here? Do they know of the rate of unemployment among Indians abroad? Can frustration not push a man to forget the rules that guide him and force him to resolve to criminal acts just to cater himself and/or his family?
Programmes aimed at helping nationals in situations like this could help in rescuing these individuals. Indians wishing to come to Saudi Arabia should be well informed of the working conditions in this country. If you are planning to come to Saudi Arabia to work, you should search well, make contacts and plan well before travelling. Information regarding work in Saudi Arabia could be gotten from websites like that of the Expatguru or from expatexchange.com. Please get informed, prepare for the odds, then move. It is true no one can predict the future but these measures would help our Indian brothers and sisters to help build a stable and crime-free expatriate community here in Saudi Arabia.
You may not believe but the Govt in most Asians countries does not give a boot of what happens to a guy who is already out of their country. Most of these hard working Indians with good qualifications would not find a decent job back home and have come out to get away from the corrupt and insecure life. I wish them luck in their struggle to live life the right way trying to get away from it all.
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