Evicted from the Kingdom

 18 December 2021

Pieter and I shared our accommodation with an HR person – separate bedrooms and shared kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. Near the end of November, the HR person (Wahid) told us that Bisha university had changed their minds and had decided to accept Pieter and me on a trial basis. We were told that we had the following day to pack up our lives and the morning following that we were to fly to

Wahid and Pieter

Bisha to take up our new positions. We were to be responsible for finding and paying for our own accommodation and arranging our own transport to and from work. This was a new challenge as for the past ten years Al Jazeera has provided accommodation and transport as part of our package to wherever we were teaching. I had a rather lengthy and heated discussion with Wahid as I really did not want to leave Riyadh and I really didn’t want to move to Bisha. However, in the end, I reluctantly acquiesced, mainly so that Pieter and I could support each other.

Finances were another challenge. My bank account had been frozen due to some iqama issues and Pieter was earning a reduced salary due to Al Jazeera’s ongoing financial woes. Al Jazeera gave us a SAR10000

Temp accommodation
 in Bisha

advance to find temporary accommodation when we arrived in Bisha and to pay the first month’s rent for when we found permanent accommodation. We had one week to sort ourselves out before classes resumed at the university after the break. A taxi driver took us from the airport to a hotel apartment that we could afford for a few days.

Some difficulties immediately became apparent. The list of phone numbers that had been provided to us by HR to find accommodation was useless. Either the contacts had left Bisha, could not help or could not communicate in English. In fact, very few people in Bisha can speak English and neither Pieter nor I can speak Arabic. The receptionists in our hotel apartment did speak some English and were very helpful. They suggested that Pieter and I walk around and look for buildings with signs outside and make a note of the phone numbers. They would phone the numbers for us and make enquiries. This approach was a total bust and the days were passing, and the money was dwindling.

Adding to the situation, the contract Al Jazeera presented to us to sign was for a much lower salary than had been discussed before we left Riyadh. The reason for this, we were told, was because the university did not consider South Africans to be native English speakers. So, Pieter and I were to earn less than Sudanese, Somalians, and various other non-native speakers. Further, HR told us that we would have to pay for our boxes of belongings in Riyadh to be shipped to us in Bisha. This also had not been discussed with us before we left Riyadh, but this is fairly typical Al Jazeera planning and communication.

Around this time, I got a call from a company in Riyadh offering me a teaching position at the Ministry of Defense, working shorter hours and for a higher salary. Given all the drama, disorganization, stress, and miscommunications with Al Jazeera, I decided to accept this offer and return to Riyadh.

This decision did not go down well with Al Jazeera. They were angry and felt that I had embarrassed them in front of the university. I had several phone calls from a variety of people at head office urging me to change my mind and to stay in Bisha. Even the COO of Al Jazeera, currently based in Egypt got involved. However, I had had enough and went ahead and bought myself a ticket back to Riyadh.

Flying back to Riyad

I informed my erstwhile flatmate, Wahid, that I would be returning to the accommodation. He in turn informed me that my room had been taken by another employee and there was no room for me. Although my contract with Al Jazeera had ended more than a year previously, they were still obliged to provide me with accommodation as they still owed me a fairly large sum of money - they had paid me, and most of their staff, no salary for the whole of 2020. So, there I was the night before flying back to Riyadh with absolutely no idea of where I would be staying when I got there and with limited funds. I spent ages Googling cheap hotels in Riyadh with zero success. To say I was stressed would be an understatement.

In desperation and on Pieter’s advice, at about 21:30 I contacted my new manager and asked if he could help. He gave me the number of a SAFFA that also works for the company and said that this guy (Arno) could maybe help. This gentleman proved to be an angel in human form. He met me at the airport and drove me around various places where I could stay close to where I would be working. Nothing was too much trouble. We found a very suitable furnished accommodation that would be available three days later and then he found me somewhere to stay for the three days I was waiting. On the day I moved into my new accommodation he picked me up, transported me and my cases to my new digs and then took me to the local Carrefour to buy some basic provisions. I doubt that he will ever know what a huge weight he lifted from my shoulders. Each time I thanked him he dismissed it as “nothing”.

My apartment

On the plus side my iqama issues had been resolved and I again had access to my bank account. What a relief!

Meanwhile, my erstwhile flatmate, Wahid, told me that I needed to collect my boxes of belongings from the accommodation. I agreed and told him to give me a week and I would make a plan. He nixed this idea and said that if I didn’t fetch my stuff within three days, he would turf the lot. Such an accommodating fellow. So, I made a plan and at great inconvenience I fetched my belongings the next day.

Al Jazeera, however, was not done with me. They decided that because I had embarrassed them and because they were angry with me that the best course of action would be to destroy my livelihood and my ability to support my family financially. After all, revenge is important. Accordingly, they issued me with a final exit which gives me two months to leave the country. My previous ten years of work and support of Al Jazeera is evidently worth nothing.

My new employer is doing what they can to get my sponsorship transferred and to cancel my final exit, but I fear they will need the cooperation of Al Jazeera to achieve this. Although I have already paid Al Jazeera SAR25,000 to make my iqama transferrable, I doubt that they will allow this to interfere with their exacting their revenge on me. As things stand, I have until the end of January 2022 to leave the country.

Khaled Hammed (COO) and Abdulaziz Al-Awad (MD)
Al-Jazeera Management