“I was not paid for one-and-a-half years, they tried to kill me, then I fled to the embassy,” says a woman. In Olaya Detention Center in Saudi Arabia, migrant women plead to be taken back to their homes in South Asia. One woman describes the “wounds and scars on her hands, neck, and legs. [Her employers] beat, pinched, and burnt her.”1 With respect to justice systems, we would imagine that these migrant women have been convicted for shoplifting, abusing others, or assault. However, under Saudi law, the women were incarcerated for escaping their employers, who were the perpetrators of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Furthermore, once incarcerated, the citizenship status of migrant women changes so that they become undocumented immigrants.2 As a result, this leads to even more susceptibility in the host country as well as in the reintegration process in their home country.
Geographically, Southwest Asia is a major destination for many migrant women from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. According to data from 2005, “seventy to eighty percent of migrants from Sri Lanka and the Philippines to the Arab States are women.”2 As a migrant labor force abroad, women have had deep economic impacts in their home countries in South Asian. For instance, “remittances from Filipinos working in the Arab States in 2007 amounted to $2.17 billion.”3 Migrant workers from Bangladesh annually sent home $637 million from the United Arab Emirates alone. Currently, Sri Lankan women in Southwest Asia have contribute to $3 billion in remittances.3
Outside economic ramifications at home, there are grave and actual implications for the migrant women abroad. A recent study examined how South Asian migrant women experience discrimination and violation of rights in both their home countries and abroad in Bahrain, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.4 Before emigration, less than 20 percent of women take advantage of any pre-departure orientation about the new host country. Through these trainings, HIV awareness is discussed in order to debunk common misperceptions. For example, over 50 percent of women in Sri Lanka believed that mosquitoes could transmit HIV and 25 percent were unaware that condoms could protect against HIV.2 Also, women are also unaware of hidden fees that agencies charge for finding domestic work abroad. For example, some women reported that they paid $345 for the “opportunity to work in Southwest Asia.”2 As a result of these extortions, women are often forced into economic debt and are trapped due to meager wages.1
When going to Southwest Asia, migrant women are subjected to arbitrary immigration laws. For instance, they must submit to a mandatory HIV tests, and positively identified individuals are immediately deported.1 Furthermore, if a migrant domestic worker attempts to escape their abusive employers, they are deemed “undocumented” and arrested. Additionally, women often face constant verbal and physical abuse from employers. In one of many terrifying cases, a Sri Lankan woman was found with twenty-four nails in her body because her employers tortured her.1 In another story, one woman suffered mental stress and depression because she was denied the right to speak with her husband. She has been at the hands of her employers for ten years. Furthermore, when women return to their home country, they often face barriers from their family. Some women have lost regular contact with family members, who no longer wish to provide support. For HIV positive women, it’s hard to return home because of intense shame and stigma. As a result, they are at a greater risk for being trafficked.
With respect to recommendations, the study emphasized success efforts in the Philippines. There is current legislation to protect the rights of workers through mandatory HIV orientation in the pre-departure training. The Philippines also signed the UN Convention for Protection of Migrant Women and Members of the Families. Also, they emphasize that men and foreigners also play a role in HIV transmission.2 As a result, all foreign service personnel are required to undergo an HIV and AIDS seminar. Additionally, the government has a 24-hour hotline under the worker welfare organization. However, host countries also can play a major role. In 2007, the United Arab Emirates created a standardized contract for domestic workers that specify rights and entitlements, such as medical aid.3 Lastly, the study recommends that job agencies and embassies should be held more accountable to protect the rights of migrant workers abroad.2 As migrant women wrongfully wait in detention cells, there is much to be done regarding their retribution and safety.
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1. Pathirana, Saroj. “Sri Lankan Housemaids in Saudi Appeal for Help.” BBC. 30 Sept. 2011. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. .
2. “HIV Vulnerabilities of Migrant Women: from Asia to the Arab State.” UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo. October 2008.
3. Weinert, Patricia. 1991. “Foreign Female Domestic Workers: Help Wanted” World Employment Program Research, Geneva: ILO.
4. Esim, Simel and Monica Smith. “Gender and Migration in Arab States: The Case of Domestic Workers.” International Labor Organization. June 2004.
4 Comments
It is interesting that you bring up this issue. Migrant workers in the Middle East is a huge issue, but it is unfortunately not one that not only affects women. In a recent article in the Huffington Post, Johann Hari writes about the Dark Side of Dubai. Dubai and many of these large middle eastern cities are built upon the labor of these migrant workers. To give these people adequate medical insurance and wages, would create a significant impact on their economies. While I do not know the specifics of this legislation in UAE, I would question to what extent it is being practiced. Recently with the Dubai economy collapsing, there has been a huge emergence of employers just leaving their workers stranded. These individuals give up their passports the minute that they enter the country, and until they pay off their “loan” the employer keeps their passport. If a company decides to forget about a project, the workers remain in the country in “camps” where they stay till they can get back their passports. The government puts no pressure on the employers to return the passports to the worker. Construction workers in UAE are particularly subject to this.
Unfortunately, the legal system in the middle east is not one that can easily be changed or one that I can foresee being changed in the near future. There are many years of bedouin history behind the means by which these laws are enacted that cannot be easily overturned. Additionally the citizens of these countries are oblivious to a lot of the hardship of these workers or they simply don’t care. Before the oil rush, these countries were dessert lands with little promise or hope. Over the past several decades, oil and the current economic structure ( including legal restrictions) has transformed these individuals to wealthy owners. Remember that in the middle east unless you are born into a native arab family (i.e. emirate family in UAE, Saudi family in Saudi Arabia) you cannot be a citizen of that country regardless of the number of years your family may have lived in that country.
This past summer I watched a Malayalam movie called Gadhama that was a motion picture about a woman who went as a maid to Saudi Arabia. She fled her employers house due to abuse and the movie is about her entire struggle in the Middle East. It is a very vivid description of a phenomena that occurs in a lot of these areas. As a person from Kerala, a state in India with a large population in the middle east, I have seen a lot of the stigma that is associated with living in Middle East. One of the other big things that these individuals face is the perception of wealth. Family and society in India view these expats as wealthy the minute that they go abroad. What many of the people back in India do not realize are the true hardships that these people go through to send any money back to India. This puts an additional pressure on these women to bare the abuses from their employer rather than run away.
Link to the huffington post article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai_b_183851.html
My room mate is from Jordan and has told me about how Filipina women are somewhat the equivalent of the Mexican population in California and about how poorly these women are treated in the workforce. Apparently, it is very common for Jordanian families to hire Filipina women as nannies and maids. Almost every house has a room designated for the nannie to sleep in. These rooms are often the size of a closet and include a bed, toilet and sink all in the same space. Underlying must of the mistreatment of these women, who, as you described, are often mentally, physically, and sexually abused, has to do with severe racism and mistrust. According to my roommate, many families will not give their made days off to ensure that the girl does not run away or steal any of the families belongings.
I found you’re blog both fascinating and disturbing and would be interested to hear more about this topic.
Although you wrote of how there may be some success in the Philippines, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) still face the same hardships. I wonder what can be done in the law to protect them when they do try to escape their violent employers. It is a good thing that they receive a pre-departure training, but there needs to be more services once they are in another country.
I went to Morocco last spring for four days, and I decided to visit two hammams – one authentic one where no one spoke anything but Arabic, and another tourist-y one. Surprisingly, the tourist-y hammam left me feeling the opposite of relaxed, and somewhat depressed. One of the attendants was Filipina, and I started talking to her about her life (what else do you do when someone is pouring soap and water allover you?). She told me that she had worked across the Middle East, and picked up Arabic just from living there for so long. I asked about her family, and she told me that her husband missed her and wanted her back home, and how proud she was of her daughter in private school (which she was funding with her jobs abroad). She raved about her employer, who in my mind, was horribly racist (from other interactions with her). Although, I suppose given the alternatives, the woman who owned the hammam was not so bad. Whenever I tried to ask questions though about hardships faced, or her living conditions in Morocco, she would tell me to stop talking and relax.
She did allude to the fact that she was often mistaken for a prostitute when she would leave the hammam on errands. Most foreign laborers, especially from Southeast Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa, are undocumented, and if discovered by authorities they face pretty harsh conditions. The Filipina told me that those who try to escape from abusive employers often cannot leave the country because the employer keeps their passport, and many resort to prostitution.
For me, she really put a face to the foreign laborer story that I would hear on the news. I was pretty impressed by her courage in going abroad into the unknown so that possibly her daughter could have a more opportunities with a better education.