[dehai-news] (iht) Rights group urges Saudi Arabia to protect domestic workers


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From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Wed Jul 09 2008 - 23:14:12 EDT


http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=14330087

 Rights group urges Saudi Arabia to protect domestic workers
By Peter Gelling
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

JAKARTA: A new report on the abuse of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia
cites the case of an Indonesian woman, Nour Miyati, who had her fingers and
toes amputated as a result of being starved and beaten on a daily basis.
Her case, tried in a Riyadh court, was later dropped.

The case, according to the report released Tuesday in Jakarta by Human
Rights Watch, is hardly unique: the study found that thousands of domestic
workers in Saudi Arabia each year face similar abuses, including lashings,
unpaid wages, forced labor and slavery-like conditions.

"In the best cases, migrant women in Saudi Arabia enjoy good working
conditions and kind employers, and in the worst they're treated like
virtual slaves. Most fall somewhere in between," said Nisha Varia, author
of the report.

About 1.5 million domestic workers live in Saudi Arabia, coming primarily
from Asian countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Nepal.
Indonesia accounts for by far the most workers, an estimated 600,000 to
900,000.

The report, titled, "As If I Am Not Human: Abuses Against Asian Domestic
Workers in Saudi Arabia," is based on two years of research inside Saudi
Arabia and nearly 150 interviews with migrant workers, government officials
and labor recruiters.

Varia, who has researched migrant worker rights throughout the world, said
she was shocked by conditions in Saudi Arabia.

"We have looked at this issue in many other countries, and it is very
common to see labor abuses like unpaid wages. But in Saudi Arabia, what
really stood out was a system that allows employers to force workers to
stay against their will," she said from Jakarta.

"You had not just one but many cases where women were forced to work for
years against their will." She said labor laws, which exclude domestic
workers, and a controversial immigration policy that ties a domestic
worker's visa to the employer, are the root cause for much of the abuse.
The immigration policy, known as Kafala, gives employers the right to deny
workers the opportunity to change jobs or even leave the country.

"Even if a woman is able to escape to her embassy, she will still have to
negotiate with employers to get an exit visa," Varia said.

Out of 86 interviews, Human Rights Watch found that 36 workers had faced
abuses so severe they resembled slavery.

Female domestic workers usually seek work abroad out of desperation. In
their home countries, women interviewed for the report often received
unequal pay compared to men and were more often employed in unregulated
industries.

They travel to financially support their families back home, the report
said, but often find themselves having to return again and again to Saudi
Arabia to meet expenses accrued in the process.

Questionable recruitment techniques by labor agencies in home countries
also cripple a worker's ability to save any money. These agencies are
deceptive about work conditions and charge excessive fees that cause
indebtedness, Varia said.

The problem is compounded by huge commissions that recruiters receive from
labor agencies that find domestic workers willing to go to Saudi Arabia.
Human Rights Watch spoke to a Sri Lankan official that said labor agencies
typically pay between $330 and $430 commission for workers sent to Saudi
Arabia, while only $50 to $100 is paid for other Middle Eastern countries.

Varia said the Saudi government had been debating several good labor reform
proposals, but no action has been taken.

"The Saudi government should extend labor law protections to domestic
workers and reform the visa sponsorship system so that women desperate to
earn money for their families don't have to gamble with their lives," she
said.

The report also called on the international community, especially countries
like Indonesia, to demand that reforms are implemented.

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