RIYADH: Responding to a recent report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) on maids in the Kingdom, Turki Al-Sudairi, president of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), said the Saudi government is concerned with the human rights situation in the country and has taken a proactive role in establishing human rights bodies, such as the HRC and the National Society for Human Rights.
The HRW report, which was published last week, said maids in the Kingdom are made to work for more than 18 hours a day, seven days a week. It added that salaries are delayed up to 10 years.
Speaking to Arab News, Al-Sudairi expressed astonishment at the way the Kingdom had been unfairly depicted in the report and wondered whether anyone has documented the abuse that employers suffer at the hands of their employees.
He added that the HRW report consists of several generalizations, which jeopardize its accuracy and credibility. “Otherwise, why do we see the citizens of other countries so eager to come and work in the Kingdom?” he said.
Speaking about the current sponsorship law, Al-Sudairi said the Ministry of Labor is working on an alternative system.
He called on the HRW to monitor human rights violations elsewhere, and give special attention to the suffering of the people of Gaza.
Al-Sudairi asked whether Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the HRW’s Women’s Rights Division, had compiled a report on the large number of pregnant Palestinian women who died in labor at Israeli checkpoints.
Varia had said in the report, “In the best cases, migrant women in Saudi Arabia enjoy good work conditions and kind employers, and in the worst cases they’re treated like virtual slaves. Most cases fall somewhere in between.”
