By Hanan Solayman
CAIRO: The relationship between post-Mubarak Egypt and some Gulf countries has been unclear for the past months, with some claiming it has taken its toll on Egyptians living in Gulf monarchies.
The public diplomacy delegation, led by Mostafa El-Guindy, was said last month to be preparing for a Gulf tour that includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.
Some Egyptians were reported to be facing problems in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
“The purpose of the visit is to discuss problems of Egyptian labor particularly in Saudi Arabia and also to raise investments,” said El-Guindy before leaving to the United States.
The Saudi labor ministry announced last May that all expatriate workers will be forced to leave after six years. The decision would apply only to private sector firms that do not abide by the country’s job nationalization quotas, it said.
Analysts viewed this law as specifically targeting Egyptians.
Yet, the tour shortly went unheeded at this critical moment in which Egypt faces an internal turmoil over parliamentary elections that requires the presence of all Egyptians in the country as Alaa Abdel Moneim, a member of the delegation, said.
“The Gulf is on our agenda but the timing isn’t suitable to have several talks with the concerned embassies and Egyptian communities in the Gulf countries,” Abdel Moneim told Daily News Egypt.
Another member of the delegation, Shaly Toma, said she’s not aware of any plans to visit the Gulf soon and that Nuba is their next destination.
“We already had talks with a Nubian delegation and we’re preparing for a meeting with the Prime Minister [this month] to set the agenda,” Mohamed Farahat, another delegation member, explained to DNE.
For Farahat, Saudi Arabia matters in terms of investments and tourism and governmental figures have visited the kingdom recently like Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour.
Targeting Egyptians
But for the Egyptian labor, other concerns need to be addressed in Saudi Arabia.
Ali, a young Journalist in his late 20s working in a Saudi newspaper in Riyadh, complains of low salaries given to Egyptians compared to Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians or Tunisians. He wants the Kafeel (sponsorship system) to be called off.
“Even our embassy refuses to get involved when a problem happens with the Kafeel saying it’s a personal issue between the worker ad his host,” Ali told DNE.
Ali wants Egypt to follow Sri Lanka in protecting the rights of its citizens. Recently, the Sri Lankan government made an agreement with Saudi Arabia to get the foreign ministries of both countries involved in the sponsorship agreement as first and second parties then the worker and his host as third and fourth parties.
Between 2-3 million Egyptians work in Saudi Arabia.
The sponsorship system (Kafeel) is a main problem for the temporary immigrant labor. Changing sponsors or hosts internally is very complicated and nearly impossible. If an Egyptian’s contract ends, he usually has to go back to Egypt and issue another contract with another Saudi host.
An Egyptian manager in a tourism company in the Gulf concerned with organizing pilgrimages to Mecca, moved to work in Saudi Arabia. His sponsor couldn’t register him as a manager so he was registered as a worker.
The Egyptian manager, who has a Masters’ Degree in Tourism and 15 years of work experience, was later arrested for forgery because his signature on official papers was indicated as a manager’s signature. He remains in prison until today.
Another Egyptian young ran away from his employer who abruptly cut his salary that was agreed upon before he moved to Saudi Arabia by 40 percent. When the Egyptian man refused to work with this salary, his Saudi host refused to let him finish his documents and reported him to authorities as a fugitive leaving him to face an unknown destiny.
Fathy, another Egyptian journalist who has been living in the Saudi capital for five years, denies claims about hardships Egyptians are facing in the kingdom in the aftermath of the revolution.
Fathy sounded hopeful of the proposed public diplomacy delegation’s visit to Saudi Arabia. He expects positive results from an organized group that he considers better than the current government’s efforts.
“Saying that Saudi Arabia is using the labor card against the Egyptian government or the revolution is completely untrue,” Fathy told DNE.
Ahmed, a translator, has a different opinion.
“The six-year expat visa limit targets Egyptians in an intangible way. The general attitude here is resentment towards Mubarak’s trial as Saudis and the Gulf in general widely respect our former president,” Ahmed said.
According to Ahmed, Saudis fear that Egypt would restore its old role in leading the Arab world. The Egyptian embassy, for one, is now providing vast support to Egyptians in the kingdom, Ahmed said.
Hardships faced by big Saudi businessmen like El-Walid Bin Talal and Gamal Al-Qanbit, owner of Omar Effendi, in the meantime also reflect on Egyptian-Saudi relations.
In a country where 8 million expatriates work, unemployment among nationals is 10.8 percent whereas Saudi labor only represents 27 percent in private companies and 10 percent in local ones, according to the Kingdom’s General Investment Authority.
Saudi population in 2010 reached 27,136,977 million as reported by the Central Department of Statistics and Information.
“The 20 percent nationals’ quota in companies has been unapplied for years, so why now? This should be the question,” asked Ahmed.
Small companies haven’t been complying with the Saudi employees quota, but because of their connections inside the labor ministry, they were never punished, Ahmed noted.
Violations occur as Saudi employers prefer hiring expatriates who take lower salaries than nationals.
Yet, Ahmed believes the Saudi Kingdom cannot severely harm Egyptian labor because it means harming Saudi businesses as well. Fathy agrees saying Saudis can’t replace a huge number of expats working in restaurants or cleaning.
In the Emirates, Egyptians face different kinds of problems.
New Egyptian labor is a problem in the UAE due to security measures. Emirati officials say there’s no Egyptian authority responding to them making it hard to issue new work visas.
The wife of a renowned Egyptian cartoonist in Abu Dhabi was advised to apply for jobs using her American passport rather than her Egyptian passport.
An Egyptian engineer wanted his wife’s family to visit in the summer, concerned officials in his company advised him not to have them apply for a visa because it will be refused.
“The situation is vague. We don’t know if this is intentional and a punishment for the revolution or if Egypt’s instability is the problem,” said an Egyptian housewife in Abu Dhabi.
