Musaned website inefficient, complain citizens

Several citizens here are angry because they say there are too few Bangladeshi workers offered for hire by recruitment offices on the Labor Ministry’s Musaned website.
The recruitment of Bangladeshi workers officially opened on April 20 following a recruitment pact signed last month between the two governments. This lifted a ban put in place by the Saudi government in 2008.
Some citizens also complained that offices were charging them fees between SR8,000 and SR9,000, while the ministry had announced the recruitment costs would only be SR4,500 per worker. They also claimed that the ministry’s website was not working properly.
In response, Director of Jeddah’s Labor Office Sultan Al-Harbi said there was no problem with the Musaned website. The problem was that many recruitment companies did not yet have enough Bangladeshi workers to meet the demand.
He said 95 percent of the ministry’s services are offered online and tests conducted by officials showed that the website was working efficiently. He said the minister of labor was committed to improving services for citizens.
Hashem Al-Sharif, a citizen who came from Laith province, 250 km south of Jeddah, claimed the ministry was not offering efficient services through its website, and had rejected some applications.
He said there was a contradiction between the ministry’s promises and the facts on the ground. He said many citizens had traveled long distances to sort out their recruitment needs.
Saudi citizens Juma Al-Hamdi, Attia Al-Zahrani and Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed said they also failed to hire workers and accused the ministry of failing to live up to its promises. They said many recruitment firms on the Musaned website did not have workers for hire.
Abdul Rahman Al-Harthy, a citizen who came from Taif, said recruitment companies refused his request and said he had to apply through the Musaned site. “But the website only has two recruitment companies with limited services, and there are some offices that do not have any Bangladeshi domestic workers,” he said.
Umm Mohammed, an elderly Saudi woman, said she had not applied on the website and was seeking other recruitment companies that could get her a maid, at any price.