Inside Story - The Plight of Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia

Maid Not Paid by Employer for 15 Years
EMIRATES 24|7: A Sri Lankan housemaid in Saudi Arabia had thought she would return home with a fortune when she told her employer to pay her only when she decides to leave the Gulf Kingdom. When it was time for the return after 15 years, she realized her grave mistake as her employer simply vanished.

Just before Kosoma Tandani was about to leave, her Saudi employer took her to the government-run Housemaid Service Centre in Riyadh and dumped her there.

He then disappeared, triggering a police manhunt for him. » | Staff | Monday, March 26, 2012

Maids: Bitter Truths
ARAB NEWS – EDITORIAL: It is estimated that there are two million working in homes in the Kingdom

Reports about maids all too regularly hit the headlines in this paper and others in the Kingdom. There are stories about maids who are abused, maids who are kept locked up or unpaid for months, even years. There are stories about maids who run away, or who have tricked or cheated their employers. Likewise, there are complaints about the costs of bringing a maid into the country. There are reports, too, of other countries being whipped up into a frenzy of concern about the treatment of maids in Saudi Arabia and their threats to stop them coming in future or imposing conditions about their employment contracts, including demands to know details about the families they are going to, their financial position, a description of the house, the number of rooms, photos of the wife and husband. Regularly, too, there are reports about new sources of maids — from Cambodia, Vietnam, indeed anywhere they can be found. The fact is that Saudi Arabia has become over-reliant on maids. » | Editorial | Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Times Are Bleeding Hard!
KUWAIT TIMES: RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is planning to encourage Saudi women to work as housekeepers after some Asian countries raised minimum wage requirements for maids hired for work in the Gulf Arab country, a Saudi newspaper said yesterday. Al-Hayat daily quoted officials saying the labor and social affairs ministries were working on finding "Saudi housekeepers" - a euphemism to avoid the usual Arabic word "khadima", or servant - to help Saudi families needing domestic help. Saudis to work as maids (more)

Mark Alexander