http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article542568.ece NSHR: Indonesian maid illegally held at deportation center By MUHAMMAD HUMAIDAN | ARAB NEWS
Published: Dec 4, 2011 00:51 Updated: Dec 4, 2011 00:51 JEDDAH: The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has taken action to free an Indonesian maid who has been detained in a Jeddah deportation center (Tarheel) for what the organization says are invalid reasons. The society has contacted the Bureau of Prosecution and Investigation and the Passport Department regarding the maid who has been detained since Wednesday, it said on Saturday. “We are pursuing the case of the maid, who contacted us through some of our volunteer activists,” NSHR member Maatouk Al-Shareef told Arab News, adding that his inquiries confirmed her complaint was genuine and that there was no legal justification for the worker's deportation. The Passport Department sends an expatriate worker to its detention center as a preliminary step before he or she is deported because that person's residence in the country is illegal. “We have noticed over the past two years a number of expatriates being deported even though they are carrying valid orders to be released from the detention center. This practice contravenes the rules of the country and rights of individuals,” Al-Shareef said. The NSHR has issued a booklet to all departments related to expatriate workers with suggestions to improve employer-employee relations, he said. The NSHR is still looking to formulate regulations governing the rights of workers, especially with regard to housemaids. “On an earlier occasion Labor Minister Adel Fakeih assured us that his ministry would launch an awareness campaign on the rights of workers, but the campaign has not yet materialized,” he said. He added the need for such a campaign is growing because the status of a large number of expatriates currently working in organizations classified in the red category of the Nitaqat program, meaning they are far below their Saudization targets, has not been clearly outlined. The Nitaqat program classifies companies on the basis of the percentage of Saudis working for them. Organizations that do not meet the required Saudization quotas have been categorized as yellow or red. Foreign employees of a red category company will not be able to renew their work visas issued in the name of their company. “We have received a number of queries from workers who do not know what to do as they are working for red category organizations,” he said. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
