JEDDAH: There is a move on the part of Saudi authorities to stop housemaids coming from certain countries. “We are serious in imposing a ban on the import of housemaids from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam,” said Ali Al-Quraishi, vice president of the local Labor Recruitment Committee.
“The main reason for considering such a ban is that the labour recruiters in those countries are not qualified enough to supply housemaids that suit the local culture and tradition. There is no proper selection process of housemaids to suit this market, nor are they given orientation before they leave their countries,” he added. Al-Quraishi said local employers have found that maids from these countries make no effort to adapt to local conditions. “They don’t even show any inclination to cope with local traditions and culture,” he said. “We have decided to be extra-careful when dealing with such foreign labor, especially after some reports that housemaids were involved in child murders and incidents of violence,” he added.
Arab News tried to speak to Saudi Embassy officials in Colombo, but drew a blank. “We are not aware of any likely ban on Sri Lankan maids,” a source said. Similar was the reaction from the diplomatic missions of Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Sri Lankan officials said they were not happy with the increasing number of complaints of abuse from their female migrant workers. “Some of them have complained that they are subjected to physical abuse and harassed due to delayed or nonpayment of salaries, and made to work till late hours,” said an official at the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE).
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait have been the main markets for over 800,000 Sri Lankan maids who have increasingly complained of rights abuses.
The SLBFE has received over 3,400 complaints from female workers in the first half of 2008, and many more during 2009. Most of the complaints stem from the Gulf region and are to do with harassment, breach of contract and unpaid or underpaid salaries.
The bureau said that in the first half of 2008 it received 577 complaints of breach of contract and 479 complaints relating to harassment, including cases of sexual abuse and physical violence.
“We want to discourage female migrant workers and promote males. We also now want to direct workers away from the Middle East to other markets like the European Union, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Japan,” he added.
Despite the increased complaints of abuse, around 100,000 Sri Lankan women still make their way to the Gulf region every year to work as domestic helps.
The Sri Lankan government gets more than $1 billion in remittances from workers in the Middle East. Of some 850,000 migrant workers in the Middle East, 80 percent are women who work as domestic helpers.
Competition in the foreign migrant domestic worker market comes from the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, which cater to the top-end of the market, while Sri Lanka provides for the bottom end at salaries of around SR400 per month per housemaid.

By K.S. Ramkumar
Arab News, Published on January 26, 2010
http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=131847&d=26&m=1&y=2010&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom