Amina, which is not her real name, was brought to the Kingdom from India almost a year ago to work as a maid for a family in Ahsa, Eastern Province, and it wasn’t long before it became evident that her sponsor and his wife were far from kind in their treatment of maids.
“They beat me mercilessly till blood came out of my face. If you were here, you would see my face is swollen and there is a gash on my head,” she said.
Amina also claims that her host family has brought others to the Kingdom and has farmed them out to work in other people’s homes for profit.
“They bring maids and then force them to work in other people’s homes and charge SR100 per day,” she said.
“If somebody is sick and needs a maid, or if someone has a big occasion and they need a maid, they send us to work for them. They don’t give us a single riyal for that work.”
She also claims her sponsor is charging SR10,000 for others to use the maids for months at a time.
The practice of sponsors sending maids to work for others is illegal under Saudi labor law.
“There was a Nepalese maid who they abused a lot, and now they have brought a Sri Lankan maid who like me they beat. They have not paid her either. She still hasn’t learned Arabic or how to properly cook Arab dishes. After she learns they will make her work in other homes too.”
In addition to suffering physical abuse since her arrival, she says she only received five months of salary and is kept under lock and key. She was only able to contact Arab News after one of the people she was sent out to work for gave her a mobile phone after learning of the abusive treatment. Amina has kept the phone hidden from her sponsor.
Amina is pleading that authorities help her return to India and escape her abusive sponsor: “This man should not be allowed to bring maids as he abuses them and takes their labor fares.”
