Migrant Domestic Workers in UAE Treated Like ‘Animals’

“Think of working in the Middle East as working in the ‘Middle Ages.’ That will give you a good idea of how you’ll be treated. The oil rich Arab states are a breeding ground of the most decadent, narcissistic, misogynistic, abusive and brutal miserable excuses for human beings alive today.”

‘The UAE should reform its kafala system so domestic workers can change employers without their consent and without losing valid immigration status,’ says Human Rights Watch

Sexual violence, isolation and forced confinement, unpaid wages, long working hours with limited food, and regular beating are just some of the conditions migrant domestic workers in oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) endure in the hands of their employers.

This “seemingly entrenched pattern” of abuses was detailed in a 79-page report by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released Thursday, October 23, urging the UAE government to enact reforms to put an end to it.

“Many said their employers had treated them like animals or as if they were dirty and physical contact with them would be contaminating,” the report said.

Quezon City resident Marelie Brua returned home to the Philippines after suffering maltreatment and a meager 800-dirham ($217 or P9,712) monthly pay under the employ of an Arab family.

A mere animal “bought” at a price is how domestic workers to the UAE are regarded, Brua shared in an HRW clip.

“He [the sponsor] slapped me and banged my head on the wall, then spit on me. He beat me with a cable on my back and put a knife to my face.” – Indonesian domestic worker

A total of 99 UAE-based helpers from November to December 2013 who came all the way from the Philippines, Indonesia, Uganda, and other labor-sending countries were interviewed by HRW staff and reported even worse experiences of exploitation.

One of those interviewed, 22-year-old Indonesian Arti L.* shared: “He [the sponsor] slapped me and banged my head on the wall, then spit on me. He beat me with a cable on my back and put a knife to my face.”

Of the 99, at least 22 complained of physical violence and 6 of sexual assault/harassment.

Arti L.*, the 22-year-old Indonesian beaten and slapped by her boss, was also raped. “I ran away with blood on my panties. I was bleeding badly,” she told HRW.

Most of them reported having to work long hours with low wages, and have experienced psychological and verbal abuse.

The women shared how they were verbally abused by their employers.

Farah S.* from Indonesia said not once was she addressed by her name, while Sadiyah A.* from the Philippines said she was always called an idiot in public.

Filipina Holly C*, 26, quoted her former employer as saying: “If you do anything wrong I will kill you and cut you up into pieces and put you into the desert and no one will know.”

The HRW brought the matter to the UAE authorities, but said it received no response.

Kafala system

At the heart of the report is a controversial system that unduly limits migrant workers’ rights and cripples their ability to redress their grievances.

Under the kafala sponsorship system, a migrant worker’s visa status is dependent on his or her employer. The threat of deportation looms and is dependent on his or her boss.

The system of having employer-sponsors as a prerequisite for migrant workers to stay in UAE and acquire a work permit enables employers to exploit them and gain “inordinate control” over them, the HRW report explained.

“The relationship between domestic worker and employer is mistakenly perceived as status-based, with a superior master commanding an inferior servant, rather than a contractual arrangement between parties with mutual rights and obligations,” it read.

Azfar Khan, a senior migration specialist for the International Labor Organization (ILO), said the system has been regarded as “slave-like.”

It is common practice among the employers of those interviewed by HRW to confiscate passports of their helpers. This prevents workers from running away from an abusive employer.

“The UAE should reform its kafala system so domestic workers can change employers without their consent and without losing valid immigration status,” the HRW urged.

Source

• Nightmare in Saudi Arabia: The Plight of Foreign Migrant Workers
• Ethiopia Has to Break Diplomatic Ties with Saudi Arabia

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Horrific Video: Saudi Family Brutally Beating an Ethiopian Woman

Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.

Psalms 55:15

 

Astonishing world wide viewers’ reaction to the horrific video

• I don’t even know what to say, I can’t think of a punishment that would be heinous enough for these people.

• Ethiopia has a fast-growing population, and will eventually become a power in Red Sea region. They won’t forget how the Saudis have treated their citizens.

• All you have to do is go to any Arab owned Gas Station to know how fucked up MOST of these people are.

• Savages. The US should NOT be allies with these heathens.

• My guess : nothing will happen, as Saudi Arabia is fully supported by the USA

• Saudi’s act like apes, barely human at all. Savage country full of savages

• Why does the West send ANY aid at all to these slimebags. Why is Saudi on ANY UN body at all – especially the Human Rights panel?

• Very sad and upsetting to watch! The excitement in their eyes as they beat the woman shows how weak they really are

• A shame the video won’t go viral on msnbc, Rachael Madcow should go to that place and investigate it like a professional journalist useful tool

• I’d honestly have no problem walking into that house with an AK and taking the whole “family” out while they sit on the floor eating curry

• If you cannot recognize that that is fucked up, then you are fucked up.

• When a population is composed mostly of people with highly defective genetic code, there are consequences. Not good ones, either

• I’m not watching that shit. Just imagining what I might see infuriates me.

• The saudi’s are scum, They will get their due when the oil runs out

• If the Saudis were to announce that they are no longer selling oil exclusively in dollars we would be preparing for war within a few hours

• At some point someone sneaky in the ME will get tired of them and then you’ll see a lot of royal heads on brass platters

• Modern slavery Completely barbaric. It actually turned my stomach

• Saudi Arabia should be destroyed just based on this video

• To think people actually believe we can coexist with these barbarians

• This is barbaric More proof they still think its Middle Ages

• This needs to be on NBC nightly news first story

• Savages and these BASTARDS want Atom Bombs!!!!

• Sometimes I can not believe that these things really happen! It’s so sad.

• Those evil bastards really seem to be enjoying themselves! There is something inherently wrong with a person that could treat a person that way “just because”.

• It’s horrifying, but not a surprise. Saudi Arabia is one of the last places on earth ANY female should be

• Being Ethiopian she’s probably a christian, she doesn’t have to do anything that’s enough in Saudi

• Just wait until their next life …

• They will also be beaten like this and feel how it is to get beaten see you in hell you bastards

• What do you expect from the saud’s? A hug?The truth is if you are not a Saudi and are working in that so called country you are basically a slave. You have no rights, Nothing.

• This is what they are, when you worship Satan, you get evil.

• She probably used the wrong broom to sweep the floor…

• Years of inbreeding they are psychopaths

• America and israel want to actually ally with these savages? They are going to allow them to have nukes?

• Of all the people on this planet the Saudies DISGUST me the most

• Fucking savages doesn’t matter if you have money or live in a mud shack its the same mentality

• I don’t know how anyone still wants to go work there as a maid. Today they threw out some 50,000 illegal Ethopians in Saudi Arabia. And how come the US or UN never says anything about their human rights violations? It’s unfair how some countries get away with this treatment of other humans

• Americans need to wake up before its too late! but the sheeple is too busy listening to Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus, in addition, the president dancing on gangam style

• If every country refused to work in their Middle East it would be very rough on them, they are very lazy people

• The United States knows that this happens every day in Saudi Arabia but because we need their oil we stay silent

• Feed the Saudis to the Iranians. Nothing is sweeter than hot Muslim-on-Muslim genocide

• These devilish evildoers will sometime stand before God and they will be judged and punished

• This is not a rare occurrence in that part of the world. It IS culturally accepted by a majority of the population

• I don’t want people coming to my country who accept behavior like that

• Anyone who knows scripture knows what the results of doing this are. I’m not happy with it. Are you happy with it?

• I can’t watch the video. Just the still picture is enough

• The worthless sub human pieces of crap that treated another human this way need to be hunted down and killed. NO MERCY. The countries that turn a blind eye towards this barbaric treatment are guilty of crimes against humanity

• I worked there two years in the 80s and was shocked even muslims from say Egypt are treated way worse than westerner

• This is mild compared to alot of the shit they do. This is just a little ass slapping in their book and they font care what anyone thinks. let god sort them out

• They are incredibly cruel people. There are all sorts of stories about them importing maids from overseas. They are beaten by the wives and daughters and raped by the sons and fathers of the households

• Its not really a immigration problem in the eyes of the people dealing out the beating. they enjoy having a surplus of desperate vulnerable people that can be their domestic servants for peanuts, and that their status as immigrants, legal or not, means that the saudi richers can pretty much do whatever they want to them

• If There were no Saudis in the world, it would be a better place

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Saudi Arabia: ‘S’ for Sex & Slavery

My Note: Everyone is asking, why countries like Saudi Arabia still remain members of the United Nations?Why are human trafficking, slavery and apartheid so acute for affluent Saudis? Some reasons come to mind. Of course, wealth and money can infect your mind, but, although slavery was abolished in Saudi Arabia in 1962, the practice still flourishes there. Prominent Saudi religious authorities endorse slavery; for example, Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan insisted recently that “Slavery is a part of Islam” and whoever wants it abolished is “an infidel.” Or, may be the TREE on the picture which is planted by the South African born former British intelligence officer, Dr. John Coleman, could tell us a thing or two?!

Saudi Arabian princess charged with human trafficking

• A Saudi princess was charged on Wednesday in California with human trafficking for allegedly holding a domestic worker against her will
• Meshael Alayban, 42, has been charged with one count of human trafficking. If convicted, she faces up to 12 years in prison
• Her alleged victim, a 30-year-old Kenyan woman escaped and then flagged down a bus to seek help

Bail has been set at $5 million for a Saudi Arabian princess after she was charged with holding a servant hostage against her will on Wednesday.

Meshael Alayban, 42, faces human trafficking charges and up to 12 years in prison after she allegedly held a 30-year-old Kenyan at her Orange County, California home after taking her passport from her.

Alayban was arrested after the Kenyan woman carrying a suitcase flagged down a bus after escaping and tearfully told a passenger that she was a human trafficking victim.

Source

Saudi Slavery? Investigation of Possible Human Trafficking at Saudi Arabian Diplomatic Compound in Virginia

If you watch crime dramas on television, you likely get agitated when wealthy, powerful bad guys from another country get away with heinous crimes in the United States because they have “diplomatic immunity.”

This breaking story of a human trafficking investigation being conducted at, or linked to a Saudi diplomatic compound in MacLean, Virginia could likely, if proven to be true, have the same results of “diplomatic immunity.”

The palatial home, now under investigation for being a possible site for forcing people into slave labor and/or slave prostitution, is owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Tuesday night, two women from the Philippines reportedly escaped the Saudi diplomatic compound and were rescued by law enforcement. Since the investigation is in its early stages, little information has been released to the press, such as the identity of the Saudi diplomat who lives in the house.

Human trafficking is huge business in Middle Eastern countries.

Source

Saudi Offers “Castrated African Slave” for Sale on Facebook

No it’s not a joke. Saudi Arabia had an estimated 300,000 slaves in 1960. Slavery was then officially abolished, but unofficially continues to exist.

Saudis who travel outside their country sometimes bring their slaves with them, leading to run-ins with the law. One of the ugliest such incidents was the murder of a slave by a Saudi prince in London.

Source

Saudi Arabia: Prominent Religious Leader Calls For Slavery To Be Legalized Once Again

“Slavery is explicitly permitted in the Koran.  Recently Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, a prominent Saudi religious leader called for slavery to be re-legalized throughout the kingdom.  According to the Sheik, a member of the Senior Council of Clerics:  ‘Slavery is a part of Islam.  Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.’

In thought and deed this way of thinking is common throughout the Islamic world.  Abu Ishaq al-Huwanini, an Egyptian Cleric proudly proclaims he wishes to apply the ancient Shar’i code of enslaving populations which refuse to pay the jizia (poll tax) or converting to Islam when defeated at the hands of a Muslim nation.  He states: ‘When I want a sex slave, I go to the market and pick whichever female I desire and buy her’

Source

Saudi Arabia And The International Sex Slave Trade

Saudi Arabia has long been involved in purchasing sex slaves. Up until recently, most of these slaves were purchased in Africa. With the advent of oil wealth the Saudi princes have been able to extend their slave purchases throughout the world. This has enabled the Saudi princes to become more selective and specialized in their tastes for slaves. The Saud family continue to be the prime purchasers on the international slave trade and are known as high end buyers. The Saudi Arabian Government continues to refuse to sign the United Nations treaties on slavery or other human rights issues because they do not want to be subject to their provisions. They will not sign extradition treaties even with Washington. They constantly declare they are free of slavery but will not allow international scrutiny. We will deal with the kidnaping of US male and female children by Saudi princes and their associates in this issue. We will substantiate the pattern of abuse using documented occurrence where the princes and their associates have been caught.

STATE DEPARTMENT SENSITIVITIES TOWARDS THE SAUDI ARABIAN INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE

It has been an open secret in Washington that the State Department has been extremely sensitive to criticism of its actions regarding Saud Arabia and its princes. There has been an unusual amount of personnel turnover at the Saudi Arabian desk where officials showing the slightest tendency towards ethics and morality are either transferred or terminated to make an example to others. Why the State Department sensitivity? There are things going on in Saudi Arabia which are so embarrassing to Washington that if the United States citizenry knew, their worst fears about Washington would be corroborated. We will deal with one of these sensitivities in this issue, child abduction by Saudi princes. This is one of several issues we have been reluctant to publish because of the emotional ramifications to families of children who have been abducted around the world in general and the United States in particular. We had to balance what the Saud princes involved in these abductions would do upon publication. In considering publishing this article against the potential benefits of making known their actions, we chose the latter. The humanitarian action would be for the Saudi Arabian Government to return the sex slaves to their US families so they could receive hospitalization and rehabilitation. We believe this will be considered impractical because of the numbers as well as the legal and political ramifications.

We have seen time and time again US media reported scandals when slaves of Saudi princes and their associates brought into the United States try to escape. The State Department then intervenes on behalf of the Saudi princes with diplomatic or retroactive diplomatic immunity. We initially became aware of non-parental child abductions by Saudi princes when a US citizen enslaved and tortured by King Fahd’s nephews was told by a guard in their palace prison the last person to inhabit his cell was a “US girl child whore slave”. We soon found the extensive nature of the non-parental abductions of US children by Saudi princes and their procurers.

This room eerily looks like the room in Kuwait used by the Iraqis to torture Kuwaitis during the gulf war. This cell is in the Eastern province of Saudia Arabia within King Fahd’s nephews’ palace and is where the “US child whore slave” was held.

Continue reading…

Saudi Silence on Deadly MERS Virus Outbreak Frustrates World Health Experts

Middle East respiratory syndrome, a cousin of SARS, has sparked global concern for its pandemic potential, but Saudi Arabia has yet to release information that could help protect the rest of the world

Over the next few weeks officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) face a tough and politically charged call. The Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan, begins July 9 and could draw as many as two million people from around the globe to the holy sites of Saudi Arabia in a pilgrimage called umrah. But a new disease, called Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, could threaten them.

Infectious disease control at mass gatherings is always a challenge, but this year even more so. Saudi Arabia is currently waging battle with MERS, yet it has released only the barest of details that scientists or public health officials could use to try to prevent its spread within Saudi Arabia or around the globe.

Continue reading…

Updated on June 15, 2013

A visitor to Southern California from Saudi Arabia had three words to say about a princess from his country being busted in Orange County for allegedly keeping a maid as a slave: “God bless America.”

He said many of his oil-rich country’s 5,000 princes and princesses not only treat foreigners such as the alleged victim in Irvine (by way of Kenya) like slaves, but they treat the average Saudi citizens like slaves as well. In his home country, these royals act as if laws do not apply to them as they drive around in their luxury cars and “take all our money,” the man claimed.

Source

Saudis Urged to Stop Hiring Ethiopian Maids

A Saudi official has urged the Gulf Kingdom to stop importing (“Import”?) domestic workers from Ethiopia following a series of crimes committed by housemaids from that African country, a newspaper reported on Monday.

“There is a need now to halt the recruitment of domestic servants from Ethiopia after an increase in their crimes against children in the Kingdom,” said Saad Al Baddah, director of the National Workers Hiring Committee.

Quoted by Alsaudeh daily, he said last week’s murder by an Ethiopian maid of a 10-year-old Syrian girl should prompt the government to take urgent action.

“The maid said it killed that girl to present her as an offering for an occult power. This behavior comes from those with certain beliefs in some Ethiopian villages…as we notice, crimes against children have largely increased since we opened the door for hiring Ethiopian maids in mid 2011,” he said.

Baddah also urged GCC health ministers to expand check up procedures for foreign housemaids to include psychological examination.

Source

Judgment Day is coming soon, The Queen of the South will be there, please stop cooperating with the iniquitously unjust neo-barbarians, please do not go to work in Saudi Arabia!

Picture courtesy of Mekonnenepic

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Women: The World Ignores The Muslim World’s Crimes

A couple of days ago, I was politely telling some European travellers to not willingly vacation in countries like the United Arab Emirates where thousands of young Ethiopian women are being enticed with the promise of work – only to suffer verbal, physical and sexual abuse. Well, to my disappointment, they were less enthusiastic to acknowledge the sad plight of African and Asian women in that God-forsaken region. Western powers spend trillions of dollars to fight against evil spirits that rule principalities. They send thousands of their sons to Afghanistan, Iraq and co. as a blood sacrifice to the beast. They import millions of the new-barbarians to their countries, give them everything they want, protect and appease them despite the fact that they are the first to jump down their throats when things go wrong. They let these barbarian into their societies so that they could shake the judeo-christian foundation. They let them abuse the system freely. They rape their daughters, kill their young soldiers brutally – yet, they still refuse to learn how to walk in other people’s shoes.

The crimes committed against poor Ethiopian women in the Middle East are indeed horrendous and horrific crimes against humanity that violate the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, the ‘civilized’ world, the United Nations do nothing to stop these crimes. The UnUnited Nations!

Another Ethiopian ‘Commits’ Suicide in Mount Lebanon

An Ethiopian domestic worker committed suicide in the home of her employer in the Mount Lebanon town of Choueifat last Wednesday, June 12, 2013, a security source said.
The 23-year-old died by hanging using a rope in one of the rooms of her employer, the source said.

According to one report, the worker was pregnant in her sixth month.

Source

Ethiopian dies, Pinay maid survives torture, starvation by UAE employers

A Filipina housemaid in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) survived torture and starvation at the hands of her employers but her Ethiopian colleague did not.

The couple faced the Court of First Instance for the alleged abuse as prosecutors sought life imprisonment for them, according to a report on the Khaleej Times news site on Tuesday.

Charges lodged against the couple included illegal imprisonment, deprivation of freedom with the use of force, physical and mental torture leading to death, and causing bodily harm, the report said.

However, the couple — a 45-year-old public relations officer and her 42-year-old policeman husband — denied the charges against them.

A forensic expert said the Ethiopian maid weighed only 37 kg when she died, while her blood samples contained traces of a pesticide, even as the suspect allegedly tried to bribe one maid with money so she would not talk to the police.

Both the Ethiopian and Filipina sustained severe injuries leading to infection.

On the other hand, the court was told the Emirati policeman merely watched while his wife abused the maids and locked them up in the bathroom.

He allegedly secured his villa in Nad Al Hamar area so the two maids could not escape.

Torture

The Filipina maid, 29, said the torture lasted a couple of months.

She told the prosecutor her employer would beat her and deny her food, and even force her to drink a mix of detergents when she did not like her cleaning.

Also, she said the employer would threaten her with jail and claim she and her husband had connections with the police and immigration.

She would also allegedly threaten to circulate nude pictures of the two. She had taken photos of the two after forcing them to strip.

The Filipina added the Emirati would bang their heads against the wall while they were cleaning the house.

She added the Emirati fed the Ethiopian only a piece of onion, sugar and salt for five days, and fed her better only after the Ethiopian lost consciousness.

But when the Ethiopian’s injuries became infected, the employer would not take her to a hospital for fear the abuse may be discovered.

Witness

The Khaleej Times report said a maid of the employer’s friend testified she herself was abused by the employer, who threw detergent on her face and forced her to sniff her underwear.

Even the employer’s friend, a 35-year-old manager, testified seeing the employer beating the victim with a stick.

However, last Jan. 16, she said she heard the employer beg the maid not to speak to the police and offered her money.

Source

Explicit Details of Degrading Sexual Attack on S. African Reporter Lara Logan in Egypt

Because the Egyptians thought that she was an American and a Jew. She had just been doing her job, as the CBS News foreign correspondent in a country which is hostile to the Christian world — a country that American tax-payers aid to bully Christian Ethiopia

Watch it here

Horrifying: Australian Woman Gang Raped in Dubai – Then Jailed 8 Months for Sex Outside Marriage

Alicia Gali of Australia was excited about her new job in the “desert paradise” of Dubai. American-owned Starwood Hotels, one of the world’s largest hotel groups, even offered to pay for her plane ticket and accommodations as part of the contract that she become a manager.

The United Arab Emirates had been aggressively targeting Australia for tourists when she took the job in 2008, portraying itself as “really progressive and forward-thinking and the ‘new’ Middle East,” Gali said. But when she got there, she found another world entirely.

After being drugged and gang-raped by three of her colleagues, Gali says she found no help from her superiors at the hotel. After she took herself to the hospital, she was thrown in jail for eight months for sex outside of marriage.

Gali’s Australian attorney explained that, as far as she understands, the crime is only considered rape under the country’s strict Islamic laws if there are “four adult, male Muslim witnesses that can provide evidence that the sex was non-consensual.”

Continue reading…

Horrific ordeal of ‘Girl D’ who was raped injected with heroin, branded and sold for sex at £600 an hour

• Mohammed Karrar plied girl with drink and drugs and raped her

• She then became his ‘property’ and a sex slave

• Was loaned out to abusers around the country for up to £600 an hour

The ordeal for one of the victims began after she became desperate for love and attention because she was forced to care for her sick parents.

So when Mohammed Karrar entered her life, bought her perfume and treated her like an adult, she believed in him. But the ‘nicey-nicey honeymoon period,’ as she described it, would last barely a year.

After grooming her, Karrar made sure she was ‘out of it’ on drink and drugs before raping her on his sofa.

Continue reading…

Muslim Gang Raped 100 Teenage Girls in The UK

Watch it here

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Foreign Domestic Workers Suffer Abuse in Mideast

 

“I wish I had stayed at home,” Almaz said. But she cannot return to Ethiopia: her passport was taken away from her on arrival in Dubai.”

My note: We are all Ambassadors of our country when we take residence outside the country, but, the official representatives of a country have far more responsibility for the well-being and rights of fellow citizens. One major criteria to occupy the post as Ambassador of a particular nation is the willingness to demonstrate a higher degree of affection to represent and protect the interests of the nation and its citizens in the best possible manner. Yet, when we observe the job done/undone by the diplomatic representatives of Ethiopia in Muslim countries it is rather lame, irresponsible and shameful. All Ethiopian Ambassadors sent to the Middle East and other Muslim-majority countries are Muslims. Why, in the first place, are only Muslims sent as ambassadors of Ethiopia to Muslim countries? Is their job to import workforces aka slaves to embarrass Ethiopia and feed the hungry Saudi-Biest by robbing the souls of clueless Ethiopians?

Thousands of young women travel to countries like the United Arab Emirates hoping to earn a better living. But many end up exploited, abused, threatened and isolated by their employers, with nowhere to go for help.

We will call her Almaz, as she does not wish to reveal her true name. She is 23 years old and left her home in Ethiopia in search of a better life. For the last 10 months she has been working as a housemaid in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Like many young women in Ethiopia, Almaz had difficulties finding a job. And even when work was available, the pay wasn’t enough to live on.

“I started an apprenticeship to become a chef,” Almaz said. “After paying half of the fee I didn’t have any money left. I needed to pay my rent and for my food and schooling – how was I supposed to get by on 400 birr [ 17 euros, $22]?”

In these circumstances, the job in Dubai sounded like a good opportunity, with a wage of $170 per month. Excited, she signed a two-year contract, trying not to think about all the negative things she had heard about working conditions in Dubai. After all, she knew of girls who had “made it” there – or at least had earned enough to send money home, which equaled success in their families’ eyes.

Slave labor

The relatives of such women rarely learn about the degradation some foreigners suffer at the hands of their employers. Almaz said she found herself in a similar situation to many other foreign maids in Dubai. In a hushed voice, she described her experience on the phone to DW as one of violence, sexual harassment and inhuman working conditions.

Almaz is forced to work up to 20 hours a day. On days when there is less to do in the family home, her boss sends her to cook and clean at her brother’s house. “I wish I had stayed at home,” Almaz said. But she cannot return to Ethiopia: her passport was taken away from her on arrival in Dubai.

Lack of protection

Almaz’s experience is similar to that of hundreds of thousands of young female workers in the Middle East. In Lebanon alone, there are 200,000 foreign domestic workers – in a total population of 4 million. The numbers are estimated to be even higher in Saudi Arabia.

The main responsibility for the rights of these migrants is carried by the host country, said Nadim Houry, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch and director of Human Rights Watch’s Beirut office.

“When abuse occurs, the case should be dealt with by the justice system and police in the host country,” said Houry.

But in reality things are different. Even though countries like Jordan and Lebanon have created laws to protect foreign domestic workers, Houry said the laws are not being applied.

“The women’s home countries have the second degree of responsibility for their safety,” added Houry, naming the Philippines as a positive example.

Filipino embassies have set up hotlines that women in trouble can call, and in some cases they offer emergency accommodation. However, they are the exception. The Ethiopian embassy in Saudi Arabia did not respond to DW’s telephone and written enquiries on the matter – nor does it respond to direct enquiries from affected domestic workers.

Sexual abuse

Almaz said she feels lonely in her struggle. She recalls one frightening encounter: “While I was working, a man who is employed as a driver came in and made sexual advances on me. I ran into the boss’s room, locked the door and screamed.” The incident did not result in any punishment for the man.

Her experience is not an isolated case. Almaz said a friend of hers was raped by her employer who threatened to stop paying her if she resisted.

Almaz said she the only way out of the situation will be to wait it out. Her contract in Dubai ends in 14 months. She hopes to then get her passport back and return to Ethiopia

Source: DW

Sri Lankan Maid Rizana Nafeek ‘executed in Saudi Arabia’

“Saudis would never execute Europeans or Americans, only Asians and Africans”

Saudi Arabia has executed a Sri Lankan domestic worker for killing a baby in her care in 2005, a foreign ministry official in Colombo has told the BBC.

The maid, Rizana Nafeek, had denied killing the four-month-old boy.

Her supporters say she was only 17 at the time of the killing. They say her execution is a breach of international child rights.

Source: BBC

Labour Abuse: More Than 52 million Domestic Workers Worldwide

At least 52 million people around the world – mainly women -are employed as domestic workers, according to the first research of its kind conducted by the International Labour Organization.

Despite the size of the sector, many domestic workers experience poor working conditions and insufficient legal protection.

• Asia and the Pacific: 21.4 million
• Latin America and the Caribbean: 19.6 million
• Africa: 5.2 million
• Developed countries: 3.6 million
• Middle East: 2.1 million

Source: ILO

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