Archive for the ‘Saudi Arabia’ Category

For many years Indonesian workers in the Gulf, specifically in Saudi Arabia, were angered at the fact that they had no form of support from their governments. Indonesian embassies often had “no comment” concerning situations having to do with abuse against Indonesian maids. Cases like these were never visibly condemned and no one sought real [...]

About two weeks ago, we reported this news on the Sri Lankan government decreasing the number of domestic maids being sent into Saudi Arabia, due to an increasingly large record of abuse.
Arab News has picked up the story, reporting the following:
Kingsley Ranawaka, chairman of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), was recently quoted [...]

Many domestic workers have been abused in Saudi Arabia. In fact the situation is so bad that some maids are even beaten to death. The country has yet to react in an effective manner, and for at least a decade it has been unresponsive to common reports of abuse. Earlier last month the Saudi government [...]

Via the BBC:
An Indonesian housemaid has been executed in Saudi Arabia after being convicted of killing her employer, the Saudi interior ministry has said.
The woman was beheaded in the southern Asir province, in what was the second execution in the country in 2008.
The maid was earlier found guilty of suffocating her female boss and stealing [...]

According to Arab News, a middle-aged Filipino woman was beaten up because she refused to be a maid/slave:
Officials at the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah yesterday said Myrna Salvador was admitted to Dr. Baksh Hospital in the Mina district of the city after suffering a fractured spine and hip. She was brought to the [...]

From Arab News:
RIYADH, 18 September 2007 — The wheels of justice would move too slow for a Sri Lankan woman who was rescued by Riyadh police after working for years in slave-like conditions: She now says she can’t wait around in the Kingdom for the legal process of suing her sponsor, and just wants to [...]

From a report this morning on Gulf News:
Riyadh: An Indonesian housemaid is in serious condition following amputation of both her hands and feet after a month-long torture by her employers, said a member of the Saudi National Society for Human Rights.
Dr Nora Al Jumaih, member of the monitoring and follow-up committee at the Saudi National [...]

“I still cannot believe that I am out of this ordeal that I have undergone for the past 10 years,” said Anista Marie, 40, who since 1999 hasn’t received her salary. Marie called up Arab News a little over 3 weeks ago saying she has been imprisoned and abused in the home of her sponsor [...]

The Arab News service reports yet another horrific story from Saudi Arabia this morning:
JEDDAH, 6 August 2007 — Two Indonesian maids were beaten to death and two others remain in the intensive care unit at a Riyadh hospital in an assault authorities believe was committed by the son of the maids’ employer. The 17-year-old suspect [...]

Yet another maid faces an execution in the Gulf, this time in Saudi Arabia, for supposed murder. According to the BBC:
The maid, Rizana Nafeek, is accused of killing a baby in her care.
She had originally confessed to killing the four-month-old Saudi baby boy in 2005 but later retracted her statement saying it had been [...]