Everybody in the Kingdom knows very well how difficult it is to recruit a housemaid from outside the country. It is a long journey that starts with obtaining a salary certificate from your employer and then taking it to the private manpower recruitment offices, which usually do not respect their appointments and are not committed to bringing good foreign manpower.
This long journey will cost you more than SR10,000 and six months of waiting until the arrival of the housemaid. When she finally reaches your house, other problems will crop up. She may start her ploys claiming to be sick, or that she came first to try out the work and get to know the family. She may not like you, so she may try to run away and join other runaways who make more money.
If you are lucky enough, the probation period passes peacefully and she will continue to work at your house until her contract finishes. But why do so many housemaids run away from their employers, who brought them to the Kingdom on a work visa? If your housemaid runs away, she leaves behind a series of questions including: Why did she decide to do so? Who gave her this brilliant idea? Who helped her? Where did she go? To what extent are you responsible for this?
Housemaids usually run away for three reasons, the first being to look for a better salary. The regular housemaid is paid SR800, while the runaway will be paid SR1,800 or SR2,000 according to the seasons of high demand such as Ramadan and Eid or if they work during a pregnancy or for services of old men and women. The runaway housemaid does not work in one house for a long time; she moves from one place to another looking for higher pay. However, do not believe that you were lucky to get a housemaid without going through the long procedure and high cost of recruitment, and do not kid yourself that you saved money and you are cleverer than the others.
The second reason for a housemaid to run away is the bad treatment she may be receiving at the house of her employer, or the hard work she may be asked to do. In such cases, the housemaid tends to run away in order to look for work at houses where there’s less work and a bigger salary.
The third reason is a delay in her monthly payment. The housemaid may be responsible for her family back home. She may be sustaining her husband, children or father, so she is committed to send money regularly at the end of each month. When the salary is halted or delayed, she will be obliged to look for work elsewhere to be able to honor her home commitments.
Another question is: Who helps housemaids to run away? Mostly they are the compatriot drivers or the brokers who have been doing this job for a long time.
Sometimes, when housemaids get together in the houses of their employers’ relatives, they get acquainted and talk to each other in their own language. One of them might be a runaway who will tell the others about her successful experience and helps them to follow suit. She will take them to the brokers who will find jobs for them elsewhere. All this happens while the real employer is kept in the dark.
One last word: Do you accept a housemaid in your house without knowing how did she come to the Kingdom? Do you have any idea if she is a criminal or has some serious disease? Will you trust her with your children? Will you feel assured about your own safety? Can you sleep knowing that your housemaid may run away any moment?
If yes, then go and hire for yourself a runaway housemaid!
