The trio made a stinging revelation that they were kept confined to their apartment in Manama between their work shifts. All their salary was deducted to meet accommodation charges, compelling them to survive on tips.
In the end, these women were able to contact the Indian embassy in Manama and were subsequently rescued. There are several such heartrending cases of maids being exploited in the Gulf as there are some two million Asian maids working in the Gulf states without proper legal cover. Almost all of them belong to poor families and are illiterate or semi-literate. Many of them face all kinds of maltreatment ranging from non-payment of salary, poor working conditions, to forced labour beyond eight hours for which they seldom get compensated. In some cases, the women who are confined to “their homes”, are compelled to work 22 hours a day, seven days a week, without food or pay. The worst cases pertain to sexual abuse and physical violence.
One study estimates that in the UAE and Kuwait, there is one domestic helper for every two citizens, while in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain there is one domestic helper for each family on an average. The six Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC) have a population of about 33 million people, including around 11 million guest workers and their families. The majority of domestic workers come from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Pakistan. Less than one per cent are Arabs.
There are growing cases of young women falling to the dubious recruitment agencies who promise a few times more salary in the Gulf. According to the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs (MOIA), the government is currently pursuing 67 such cases. Majority of these cases relate to sexual exploitation and ill-treatment. The affected women include nurses, private tutors and hair dressers. The number given by the ministry surely must be the tip of the iceberg. However, what is good is acknowledgement of the existing problem and the government's initiative to set-up a 24-hour helpline service from September 1 in all Indian embassies in the Gulf countries.
It is important to understand that the local laws in most of the cases go in favour of the residents because of a partisan police and judicial system. Very few maids are familiar with Arabic and cannot express and defend themselves properly. There are laws meant to protect these maids in the Gulf. Kuwait, for example has a special law to protect maids but still this has not stopped sponsors from abusing the maids. Similarly, in Bahrain the labour law also covers maids but the mal-treatment continues, some are reported while many remain hidden behind the four walls. Moreover, duties of these maids are not specified. For example, she is supposed to attend to household chores within the house but is often asked to take care of the children even though she may not be a trained baby-sitter.
Recently a 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid, Rizana Nafeek, was accused of strangulating a four-month old Saudi boy. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) came forward and deposited an initial sum of US $14,000 to begin the appeals process before the July 16 deadline. The AHRC is a non-governmental human rights organisation. The Shariat court in Saudi Arabia had sentenced the maid to death by beheading and gave her a period of one month to lodge an appeal through the Sri Lankan embassy.
Many Arab homes find it convenient to recruit Asian maids simply because they have to only pay around US $100 per month. The demands of these maids regarding food and shelter are bare minimum. But given the exploitation, the embassies of these countries must wake up and do more than what they are pretending to do. All the talk of “let the law take its own course” cannot be an excuse to remain a silent bystander. These embassies need to influence the host country and ensure fair trial and justice to the victims.