Makkah Day II - What Are All These Bangali People Doing Here?

In Makkah I didn't see a single Bengali pilgrim, but I saw hundreds of Bengalis! So what are all these Bengali people doing here? They're foreign workers brought over by the Saudi Kingdom to do low skilled work for minimum wage. The bell boys, room service people, waiters, taxi drivers...Bengalis. The working visas usually expire in two years. In that time, foreign workers have the opportunity to send money back to their families or save up money so that when they return to Bangladesh they have more money than what they left with. Some Saudi employers provide room and board and even an old model car.

It sounds like a good deal, right? The problem with hiring desperate people especially desperate poor people is exploitation. One has to wonder are these ex-pats leaving terrible conditions for better ones? Or is it out of the frying pan and into the fire? Women foreign workers hired as maids are sometimes physically and sexually abused by their employers. In Kuwait, workers protested against low wages and poor working conditions. The Kuwaitis deported over 200 Bengali workers involved in the protest.

From the conversations my parents had with some of these Bengali workers, I found out their primary concern was premature cancellation of their visa due to cutbacks being made on foreign workers. Another concern is their status in the Kingdom. Saudi nationals look down on foreign workers because of the lowly work they do. The irony is that the Saudis don't want to do the work that Bengali workers are hired to do. The unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia is 30%! One of the highest in the world.

Shouldn't a 60 year old Bengali man mopping the floors of the Masjid al-Haram be treated with the same dignity as a Saudi oil tycoon?

I think so.