JEDDAH, 28 November 2007 — It seems like every other day we hear about another mistreated or downtrodden domestic worker whose social and human rights have been infringed upon. But those reports seem to leave out the circumstances that lead many of the accused Saudi sponsors to resort to these atrocious acts of physical and verbal abuse.
Although there should be no excuse for abuse under any circumstances, one fails to remember that the process of fetching foreign employees to work in the Kingdom is not exactly an easy one to begin with. There are numerous governmental regulations to be followed by various institutions as well as hefty fees to be paid. And if that’s not enough, there is the lack of understanding and concern by many recruitment offices. This in turn provides just the right mix of mayhem to drive a sane man mad.
Here comes the clincher. After doing all that paper work and going from office to office amidst the heat of the day, traffic jams and pressures of life, when the maid finally does arrive she is often reluctant to do her assigned duties, steals from her sponsor or his family members, does acts of violence on herself, pretends to be mentally ill, has seizures and abuses and sometimes even kills her sponsor’s children.
Case in point is that of one Saudi businesswoman named Hanan (not her real name), who was one of the first ladies to open a Mushgal, or a tailor shop/beauty salon, in Jeddah nearly 20 years ago. The story begins with Hanan employing a Filipino seamstress in her shop as she had done for years. Arab News paid several visits to the tailor shop/salon in the past and found the employee always being provided with every necessity of life and living quite comfortably in her own mini apartment located in the back quarters of the salon complete with kitchen, bedroom and restroom facilities. The fridge was always full of an assortment of foods and juices.
In exchange, Hanan required that the employee’s duties include answering the phone in her absence to direct potential customers to the salon in addition to sewing dresses and pieces, as prescribed according to clients’ wishes. Since the seamstress was not a Muslim, Hanan began to graciously give her employee days off for Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter in the spirit of fairness and to strengthen the employee-employer relationship, as Hanan was brought up to believe that a happy worker is more productive.
Some might say that the seamstress had it easy, living in the perfect set-up in the right atmosphere for any foreign employee wishing to earn an income for her family back home. So in the end how appreciative was the seamstress and how did the employee thank her employer? To be put quite frankly, by running away, reporting to the Philippine Consulate in Jeddah that she was abused, beaten, left to starve and to work 24 hours a day without so much of a vacation. Of course, the consulate contacted the Ministry of Labor who in turn contacted Hanan, leaving the employer, who had provided literally every humanitarian right to her employee, summoned to a Riyadh court, which in the end ruled in favor of the foreign worker. The court asked Hanan to give SR20,000 in salary dues to the seamstress for the two years since her escape, buy her plane ticket home, and pay other fees and a fine amounting to nearly SR30,000.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Hanan told Arab News. “The court had given me 30 days to pay the fees or else be taken to jail.”
She added that the only alternative she had was to sell her shop, which she just had remodeled after over 20 years of hard work saving and building a clientele. Hanan, who is married and has five children, started the business after her husband suffered a heart attack some years ago forcing him into early retirement. “My youngest child is only 10 years old. Who will take care of him and the other children if I am sent to jail for not paying the fees?” she said.
Speaking about the plight of workers and rights of employers, Mujahid Al-Sawwaf, an attorney with a law office of the same name, said, “First of all I don’t believe in the sponsorship of foreign labor because I think that if someone treats another person with justice and equality no problems should arise.”
As long as Saudi citizens continue to have a need for foreign labor but neglect treating the workers as human beings, the subject of employing foreign workers will remain a major social problem, he added.
Al-Sawwaf said Hanan upheld the best principles of dealing with foreign labor by conforming to Islamic values of kindness, care and patience. “The Qur’an asks us to feed and clothe the servants in the same manner we feed and clothe ourselves,” he said.
When asked by Arab News what should be done if a sponsor has made every effort to provide everything a foreign worker needs and has still been victimized, Al-Sawwaf said, “The most important thing is to not take the law into your own hands. The sponsor should report the situation to the police and proper authorities, who will take a look at the case and make a fair decision.”
In the end, Hanan decided to sell her shop and use the money to pay the court-ordered fees. Today, she is no longer a business owner but a working mother doing her best to take care of her ailing husband and children. Hanan has taken a job with a local beauty products company and sells beauty products from her home. She has decided to build her sales and turn her job into a home-based business where she will “never have to hire foreign workers.”
