For the first time in my life, last week I visited the deportation office. On entering I went to the employee in charge and said, “My maid has run away.” His reaction was contrary to what I had expected. He replied by saying, “You should be thankful.”
I wondered what this employee knew that I didn’t. The man then began to say the fact that my maid had left was much better than her abusing my children or committing any other sort of crime. He then began telling me a lengthy story about other citizens whose maids had done horrible things making mine seem like an angel.
I left the deportation office with a totally different perception of things. The maid was no longer a criminal in my eyes. To me she’s only a human being just like any other person who might behave in a similar way if placed in similar circumstances. Let’s think about this together.
A maid receives SR600 a month and once she escapes she would ultimately be able to earn no less than SR1,500 a month if she works as a housekeeper and if she finds alternative ways of making money then she’ll be able to earn even more money.
She also is not aware of the obstacles that a sponsor has to face in order to prepare a visa and the crazy amounts of money that is paid so she can arrive in the Kingdom. And even if she knew she wouldn’t really care, because all that matters to her is her family that she has left behind and dreaming about how her life will improve once she returns.
I don’t truly blame the maid for running away and nor do I blame the recruiting office that helped her come to the Kingdom. I blame society that looks for a temporary maid the minute their maids abscond.
Temporary maids after all tend to be from the thousands of maids who abscond themselves from their sponsors’ homes in a vicious circle. They start working knowing that people need them and find it irresistible to say no to the money they receive.
This is a growing corrupt business that attracts many maids and house servants and is ruining our society, something that is in clear violation of Saudi laws and a source of exploitation of local people.
The solution is not to imprison maids inside homes as one of the deportation officers suggested. Condemning people who hire temporary maids illegally without their sponsors’ approval is the only solution to the problem.
Until a new law that firmly and strictly punishes people that use the help of temporary maids is implemented, I just wish that whoever has had a similar experience to mine helps me get the services of a temporary maid.
