http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=82032&d=11&m=5&y=2006&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Local%20Press
Thursday, 11, May, 2006 (13, Rabi` al-Thani, 1427)
Runaway Maids: A Problem With No Solution
Muhammad Al-Hassani, Okaz
I do not exaggerate when I say that thousands of newspaper
articles, statements and complaints have been published about runaway maids and
the problems they cause. Families suffer because of the money spent to recruit
maids. And then the maids, after only a short time, run away, often with the
connivance of people who encourage them to run away. These people provide the
women with work and shelter and with more money than they were receiving from
their legal sponsor.
I say that hundreds of articles and interviews have been
published regarding runaway maids but still, there is no solution to the
problem. Is there any mechanism that guarantees the rights of sponsors to get
their money back if their maids run away? Most of the maids who run away have
not been exposed to physical harm, and those that have been are small in
numbers. Most of those who run away were planning to do so before they even
arrived in the Kingdom.
There are maids who escape after months of work because of
bad treatment; this is a fact and should be dealt with. They escape because
they see no other choice and often run away when they are shopping in a mall.
The family takes the blame when these maids run away because the bad treatment
the maids received led to them running away. But what about the families who
paid more than SR5,000 to recruit a maid, not counting other extra payments
that came to thousands of riyals. The family then has to pay thousands more in
order to recruit another maid who may remain with the family or run away. Why
do the families have to pay for the maid to come here and then run away to work
somewhere else?
The main question here is: Where do the maids stay after
running away. We do not think the authorities are aware of these places. What
are the procedures for deporting these maids? Are there mechanisms that
guarantee the rights of families? If these mechanisms do not exist, then when
will they be implemented? How long will citizens be victims? Is it really such
a big problem to solve this small one?
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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