Thursday, July 17, 2008

Maids Beat by Recruitment Agency

Damn. The maids here have it rough. One way or another they are going to get beat. But, this time it wasn't a maid's employer; it was her recruitment agency. Do some people truly believe that the only way to get someone to work is to resort to beating them? [Yes, I may want to beat Rev, for NOT working, but I have never laid a hand on him, and never will.]

A "citizen," Nawaf Nahid, who recruited a Nepalese maid, could not get her to work at his house so he took her back to the recruitment office. Apparently he did this "several times," and out of "curiosity" he "slipped into the room" where the maid had been taken and "found the interpreter speaking harshly and waiving a big stick in front of her." It is Mr. Nahid who has lodged a complaint against the recruitment agency.

The office staff at the agency says that "the Nepalese maids come from a different environment and fare poorly in Saudi Arabia because they don't attend any training or orientation courses." [No mention of the fact that the reason Nepalese maids are now being recruited is due to the fact that certain other countries are now mandating that their workers be paid specific minimum monthly amounts. Nepal has not yet instituted such a requirement.] The staff at the agency "admitted to using a cane to 'discipline' stubborn maids but claimed that they do not beat them harshly. They also alleged that some families torture and mistreat maids to the extent of sexually harassing them due to which maids refuse to work."

Yeah. The justification there, at the end, makes no sense whatsoever...

2 comments:

  1. When I was having problems with one Indonesian maid I had (Sarti) I was told I could have a rep from her embassy come in and talk to her. If she continued to refuse to work he would beat her.

    Although seriously I wanted to beat that woman myself lol.. the thought of having some guy come and beat her made me feel so bad for the whole situation.

    They are talking about getting rid of the sponser system (which I say they should) throughout the whole GCC I wonder if anything would change. "Beating" seems like a solution to so many, not just employers but their own represenatives at their embassy.

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  2. I want to beat some of the men that work for me, too, Nzingha. But I don't. My current houseboy - who will be finished in seven weeks - he doesn't know this, of course - makes me a crazy woman. Rev, who, of course was supposed to be here an hour and forty-five minutes ago, makes me WANT to hurt him...

    The sponsorship system will not go away. It has made too many people money here for too long.

    ...how long have you been here, Nzingha? "They" talk about a lot of things and then do virtually nothing at all.

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