Newly recruited housemaids are not allowed to leave the airport except with their sponsors. If their sponsors do not turn up, the women have to remain at the airport.
“It is evident from reports made by two women members of the NSHR that the housemaids, mostly Ethiopian, are deprived of protection and care and housed in overcrowded dark rooms without ventilation or emergency exits,” Director General of NSHR Hussain Al-Shareef told Al-Watan daily yesterday.
NSHR members Noorah Al-Towaim and Laila Halwani visited the women workers’ reception area at the airport recently and found a large number of housemaids were living in an environment not fit for the purpose. Dozens of them were sleeping on the floor and the space was filled with a foul odor. Some maids told the visiting members that they had not received food for many days and did not a have space, sheets or beds to sleep.
Al-Shareef said the report showed there was no coordination between departments concerned to take care of newly arriving women workers at the airport.
