The Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) and other regulatory authorities have begun strict new measures to prevent the visa trade by screening commercial licenses in all different sectors, to reduce manipulation in the process of bringing in new workers, and prevent the entry of loose workers.
Senior officials at PAM told Al-Qabas work is underway to audit licenses estimate the needs of companies so that business owners will be given permission to hire a number of workers according to the needs of the projects or the number of shops, warehouses and other affiliated facilities, in addition to other procedures that are being followed in employment grants for government contracts.
The daily quoting the sources said these efforts aimed at controlling the labor market as efforts begun over the past two years continue to prosecute those involved in the visa trade, hundreds of whom were exposed during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic when the government allowed violators to leave the country without paying fines and several of them came forward and investigations revealed they were victims of visa trade, while the process of arresting violators of residence law continued and subsequently those responsible for bringing them into the country were arrested.
The sources pointed out that the mechanism on granting visas for government contracts to companies to bring in bulk workers is done in stages according to the need of the project, in addition to a study carried out by the Need Assessment Department of PAM.
The sources confirmed that the authority has made great strides in the file of prosecuting visa traders during the past two years in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and the noose continues to tighten against them which has led to reducing the employment problems unlike before, work permits are codified, and are granted only to those working in the labor market.
The sources pointed out that PAM has received thousands of requests for work permits, recently distributed among several sectors, most notably the private education sector, restaurants and food companies, guard and security workers, cleaners, clerks, the contracting sector, fishermen and farmers.
Meanwhile, the sources confirmed efforts continue to pursue fake domestic workers offices that exploit the social media outlets to announce availability of domestic workers. Most of these domestics are reported absconding or are violators of residence law and sheltered by the fake domestic workers offices since the demand for female domestic workers has risen 90 percent.
Over the past three months, PAM sources say, member of the Tripartite Committee have arrested 158 female Asian and African domestic workers who were reported absconding by their employers and those who were living illegally in the country and also arrested Arab brokers who worked for these offices.
The sources stated PAM plans to increase inspection campaigns in the near future targeting new commercial complexes and rental office sites, which are known to operate on fake licenses.
The sources pointed out there is a tendency to raise the value of the worker’s guarantee, which is currently paid for government contracts to 250 dinars, in addition to activating other procedures, such making use of financial guarantees set for the project and use the money to solve any crisis or labor problems related to the material rights of workers.
The six sectors that require the recruitment of thousands of workers are:
1 – The private education sector
2 – Restaurants and nutrition companies
3 – Guard and security companies
4 – Cleaners and clerks
5 – Contracting and construction sector
6 – Fishermen and farmers sectors
