Abuse forcing maids to flee employers
Maltreatment, sexual abuse and other offences are forcing foreign housemaids in Saudi Arabia to indulge in crime or run away from their local employers, according to a local medical expert.
Dr. Naif Al Marwani, a psychologist at a Saudi government hospital in the central town of Madina, said nearly 89 per cent of homes in the Gulf Kingdom have at least one housemaid and around 79 per cent of them are non-Arab workers.
“Housemaids attempt to flee their sponsors due to maltreatment, non-payment of wages, sexual aggression, being sent to work for other people, differences in customs and traditions, and homesickness,” he told a seminar on housemaids.
“Others reasons entail overwork and no provision of health care,” he told the conference in Madina, coinciding with growing furor over the abuse of maids in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producers.
He said the number of maids has steadily increased over the past few years, with the figure approaching two million in Saudi Arabia alone.
“This is because they are easy and cheap to recruit and give social status,” Al Marwani said. “The hosting of visits and occasions is important in Saudi society, and women have gone out to work and are overburdened with household duties.”
He said that many employers in Saudi Arabia are unaware of the detrimental effects of inviting a stranger into the home.
“There is a fear of relationships developing between the housemaid and male members of the family, or possibly friends and acquaintances. They bring different practices which the family’s children might imitate, or they might get involved in socially unacceptable behavior, or in crime, such as theft, prostitution, magic, and murder, or try to commit suicide.”
Al Marwani proposed setting up courts to solely handle cases involving house workers, publishing information booklets on Saudi culture, making them aware of their rights in Shariah Law, commitment to laws dealing with abuse and punishment deterrents, and clear job descriptions for housemaids.