Expat women abusing domestic helper visas

June 5, 2013

Jeddah, Jun 5: Hundreds of expatriate housewives who overstayed their Haj and Umrah visas are now becoming domestic workers in name only so that they can stay in the Kingdom with their husbands, Arab News has discovered.

They are exploiting a Saudi government concession that allows Umrah or Haj pilgrims who came to the Kingdom prior to July 2008, to become domestic workers. In reality, they do not work as domestic workers in the homes of their employers, the newspaper has found.

The concession is part of a raft of measures announced by the Kingdom last month for illegal workers to regularize their work status or go home. They have until July 3, the end of a three-month grace period, to do so.

This option has allowed foreign women, who arrived in the Kingdom on Haj or Umrah visas to join their husbands in Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah, as legal employees.

The domestic help sector in the Kingdom is dominated by Indonesia followed by the Philippines, who together account for nearly 70 percent of the total domestic help in the Kingdom.

In the current regularization process, only a few women from these two East Asian nations are turning up at the passport office in Jeddah’s Rehab district to provide their biometric details before applying for an employment visa.

Hundreds of women from Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Ethiopia are converging on Rehab district to process their documents.

Husbands who could not obtain family visas because they lack the required academic qualifications have opted for this easy way to keep their wives in the Kingdom.

According to Ministry of Haj statistics up to the end of November 2012, 25,000 Umrah pilgrims failed to return to their countries. Pakistan stood top of the list with 9,752 pilgrims, followed by Egypt with 3,519.

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Syrian Town erupts after Israeli forces enter Beit Jinn; heavy casualties reported

News Network

November 28,2025

Several Syrians were killed and more than two dozen others injured in Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Damascus, amid intensified incursions by the occupying regime since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad and the rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rule.

Syrian state TV reported that the casualties occurred during an overnight Israeli assault involving helicopters and drones on the town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside. The attack followed an Israeli military unit’s entry into the town, where they were surrounded by local residents, leading to gunfire and direct confrontations.

According to the report, “The occupation army’s helicopters and artillery shelled Beit Jinn, located at the foothills of Mount Hermon, resulting in 13 martyrs and 25 injured civilians.” The broadcaster did not specify the full extent of damage.

Al-Ikhbariyah Syria confirmed that the shelling coincided with Israeli soldiers entering Beit Jinn, while artillery pounded surrounding areas. The broadcaster stated that the escalation began after local residents clashed with an Israeli patrol that had infiltrated the southern town and “kidnapped” three young men.

Following a two-hour exchange of heavy fire, Israeli forces withdrew and repositioned on the hill of Butt al-Warda at the town’s outskirts.

Israeli media acknowledged that six soldiers were wounded in the clashes—three of them seriously—describing the confrontation as a “sudden ambush” that forced the deployment of reserve units and air support to secure an exit route. No further details were provided.

The aggression has fueled renewed displacement from Beit Jinn, with residents fleeing to nearby villages amid increasingly frequent Israeli attacks.

The raid came just a day after Israeli troops carried out another ground incursion into Umm al-Luqas village in Quneitra province. According to SANA, an Israeli unit in four vehicles entered the village, raided several homes, and later withdrew.

Syria condemned the repeated incursions as violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and UN resolutions, urging the international community to enforce compliance and pressure Israel to halt its operations and withdraw fully.

Israel has expanded its attacks across Syrian territory following the collapse of the Assad government last year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly instructed his forces to push deeper into Syrian territory and seize strategic positions.

Meanwhile, critics say the HTS-led interim government’s inaction and growing normalization gestures toward Israel have emboldened Tel Aviv to intensify its military operations. HTS, formerly linked to al-Qaeda, seized control of Damascus last December, formally ending Assad’s rule.

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