Hundreds of Bangladeshi female workers leaving Saudi Arabia alleging 'dupery, torture'

[24 Hours]

Md Shofi Ullah from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia bdnews24.com
Published: 2017-05-02 00:56:04.0 BdST Updated: 2017-05-02 14:00:46.0 BdST

Hundreds of Bangladeshi female workers are gathering in the missions in Riyadh and Jeddah after failing to get promised jobs or allegedly being tortured by employers.

Around 329 such female workers took shelter in the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh and the consulate general until Sunday and the number is growing everyday.

Bangladesh Labour Counsellor Sarwar Alam in Saudi Arabia told bdnews24.com that 502 female workers, who had taken shelter in the embassy, were sent back on Mar 29.

Out of the 329 who have taken shelter since then, 74 are in the Jeddah Consulate General while the rest are in the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh.

These workers have alleged they did not get the job as promised by agents in Bangladesh. They came to Saudi Arabia through private recruiters as legal workers.

Some of them said they were promised nurse and peon's posts but they got cleaner's posts.

Most of the workers who have taken shelter at the embassy and the consulate general have gone to Saudi Arabia to work as housemaid.

They have alleged that they were not provided food three times a day, let alone regular payments.

Some of them, on condition of anonymity, also alleged physical and sexual torture by their employers.

One of the workers told bdnews24.com: "I had been told that I would get the job of an assistance of a nurse in a hospital. But I was given the job of a cleaner in a house. Then I was tortured. So I fled and took shelter in the embassy three weeks ago."

Many others, waiting for more time than her, do not know when they can return home.

Some have fallen sick in the overcrowded shelters stretched beyond the capacity.

Jeddah Consulate General official Abu Jara said it has the capacity to shelter 35 but 74 workers have taken shelter there.

He told bdnews24.com that the process to send back 34 of them already started.

He said it 'would not be easy' to send back the 40 others because they fled their employers.

In line with rules, the Saudi Arabia government has to be informed by the employers if any worker flees. It takes time to send back such workers without completing the administrative process.

"We've informed the foreign ministry and now we are waiting for the reply," Abu Jara said.

Asked when all the female workers who have taken shelter in the embassy and the consulate general could be sent back, Bangladesh Ambassador in Saudi Arabia Golam Moshi told bdnews24.com that it is an ongoing process.

"It usually takes two to eight weeks for us to send any worker back after he or she comes to us," he said.

"The workers are regularly taking shelter in the embassy and we are sending them back," he said, adding that the Saudi authorities were 'very cooperative' in this regard.

"The workers leave job by breaching their contracts following misunderstanding most of times. But the Saudi authorities always cooperate with us to send them back," he said.

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2017...-leaving-saudi-arabia-alleging-dupery-torture

 

[baajey]

whats with "these" rich countries. why do they keep their servants/laborers in such deplorable conditions.
even a delhi housewife would feel good about herself after hearing stories from the middle east.

 

[Kandari-Hushiyaar]

Unavoidable circumstance. Our cultures are different. Arabs are used to slavery and they have a tendency to look down on maids as slaves. On the contrary in Bangladesh , Even poor lower middle class families treat their maids with respect as any other individual. There might be few incidents of tortures on minor girl-maids like beating but that is common in every part of the world.

 

[SajjLad]

Horrible to hear.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Unavoidable circumstance. Our cultures are different. Arabs are used to slavery and they have a tendency to look down on maids as slaves. On the contrary in Bangladesh , Even poor lower middle class families treat their maids with respect as any other individual. There might be few incidents of tortures on minor girl-maids like beating but that is common in every part of the world.

Saudi Arabia didn't abolish slavery untill 1962! Can you imagine? In that year,Saudi Arabia freed 4 lakh slave due to pressure from US president John F Kennedy.My only regret is that God have bestowed vast reserves of oil to the most unworthy bunch of people on this earth.Those scumbag are using that oil money for spreading abuse and terrorism.

 

[Michael Corleone]

saudians are just piece of shit ..... as expected (not the whole bunch of em.... but majority)

 

[Saiful Islam]

If BD government had any self respect or respect for its people it would not send its poor women folk to a country full of vultures. These poor, uneducated and backwards people have no idea what they're getting themselves into until they go to Gulf states.

 

[chatterjee]

very disgusting

 

[Sine Nomine]

If BD government had any self respect or respect for its people it would not send its poor women folk to a country full of vultures. These poor, uneducated and backwards people have no idea what they're getting themselves into until they go to Gulf states.

1968 President Ayuob was offered by many foreign countries for Labour,which obviously was meant for odd jobs,he denied it.

Unavoidable circumstance. Our cultures are different. Arabs are used to slavery and they have a tendency to look down on maids as slaves.

Not just maids,they have look down behavior on every Agmi,specially south asians and Africans.

 

[Al-zakir]

Sending your women to foreign land to earn money. If you have any shame then you would rather die starving then push her in to unfriendly situation. Lakh lanat on Bd government and men in that nation.

 

[Banglar Bir]

Homepage : Society : Hundreds of 'tortured' Bangladeshi women flee Saudi Arabia

Diana Alghoul

Hundreds of 'tortured' Bangladeshi women flee Saudi Arabia
Indonesian activists hunger striking outside Saudi embassy in protest of abuse of migrants [Getty]
Date of publication: 2 May, 2017

• Kafala system, sponsorship, Bangladesh, migrant rights
  Naseeba* arrived in Saudi Arabia after being promised a career as a nurse assistant in Saudi Arabia. She left her home country Bangladesh with high hopes of earning a decent living and building a new life for herself and her family.
  
  She was guaranteed the job she had applied for and had trustfully opened her arms to the opportunity, but her story took a bitter turn after she landed inside the kingdom.
  
  “They promised me a job as a nurse assistant,” she told Bangladeshi newspaper Bdnews24, “but when I landed, they assigned me as a house cleaner and forced me to take it. They tortured me throughout.”
  
  Naseeba eventually managed to escape her ordeal after fleeing to the Bangladeshi embassy, where she is now staying in an overcrowded camp awaiting to return to her home country.
  
  She is one of hundreds of Bangladeshi women that have fled their Saudi employers. The Bangladeshi embassy in Riyadh estimates that there are currently around 329 women seeking refuge inside the embassy awaiting to return. More than 500 were returned to Bangladesh at the end of last month.
  
  There are also 74 women in the Bangladeshi Consulate General in Jeddah.
  
  The escapees came with a range of horror stories of being mistreated. Many were lied to about their job role before arriving in Saudi Arabia. Stories of torture and sexual abuse are also all too common within the camps.
  
  
  
  The escapees came with a range of horror stories of being mistreated. Many were lied to about their job role before arriving in Saudi Arabia. Stories of torture and sexual abuse are also all too common within the camps
  
  
  Despite escaping, they are still not safe. Their lives are hanging on a thread while they are sardined inside camps, not knowing when they will be sent back home. Because the camps are so overcrowded, many women have fallen ill.
  
  While devastating, the state of these women should not be of a shock. Saudi Arabia, along with other countries in the Middle East practice a controversial sponsorship system, commonly known as the ‘kafala’ system, a system built on institutional racism, which effectively makes migrant workers property of their employees.
  
  When a migrant worker enters a country that practices the kafala system, their passports are often confiscated and their movement is monitored by the employee, who is deemed legally responsible for the migrant workers as the system strips them of their autonomy and their basic human rights.
  
  More recently, the abuse of migrant workers are recorded on social media, in sadistic attempts to gain followers and fame.
  
  A recent example of this is a Saudi Snapchat user finding herself in the Saudi Snapchat hall-of-fame by recording videos of herself visiting houses across the country to interrogate housemaids.
  
  Read more: Saudi Snapchatter targets and terrifies 'black magic' housemaids
  She is called by employers across the country when the domestic worker is suspected to have placed a curse on the household, or to have performed "black magic", or even when a domestic worker has been suspected of lying about their religion.
  
  The evidence that the kafala system is effectively allowing migrant workers to be dehumanised and subject to slave-like conditions is growing at an overwhelming rate.
  
  Social media activists are able to trace experiences of individual victims, and are becoming increasingly able to translate reports and cases to different languages and spread them across media outlets.
  
  Yet despite this, governments that practice the kafala system are showing little desire to implement genuine change and abolish the oppressive system as a whole.
  (* Names have been changed as victims have requested anonymity)
  
  
• https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/s...f&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Bangladeshi housemaids reluctant to work in KSA
May 15, 2017


Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Nearly a third of Bangladeshi housemaids enrolled for pre-departure briefing at special training centers in Dhaka do not want to work in the Kingdom, Al-Madina newspaper reported quoting an official source at the Bangladeshi Embassy in Riyadh.

The source said a number of housemaids who have completed training had second thoughts about working in the Kingdom due to a variety of reasons, including the differences in language, customs and traditions.

The source, who did not want to be named, pointed out that the private training centers did not have enough experience in providing pre-departure training to the workers nor did they know about the living conditions in Saudi Arabia.

“They were simply offering training how to make more dough,” he added.

The source said the Dhaka government was planning to establish its own training centers to equip Bangladeshi manpower coming to the Kingdom and to increase the training period from the current 30 days to 90 days.

“All registered housemaids will be obliged to attend the training programs and anyone who fails to complete the period will not be allowed to travel to the Kingdom for work,” he said.

The source said about 50 percent of the Bangladeshi housemaids who actually arrived in the Kingdom refused to work and opted to rerun to their country.

Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, owner of a recruitment office in Jeddah, said the refusal of Bangladeshi housemaids to work in the Kingdom led to an increase in the number of the recruitment requests, further complicating the thorny issue.

“Since the recruitment of housemaids from Bangladesh has started, about 50,000 housemaids were sent back home because they refused to work after arriving in the Kingdom,” he said.

According to Al-Ghamdi, the high rejection rate was because the housemaids were unable to get used to the lifestyle in the Kingdom and could not acclimatize themselves to Saudi customs and traditions.

According to other sources, about 60 percent of work visas issued by the Labor Ministry for housemaids from Bangladesh are gathering dust in the recruitment offices.

They said the recruitment offices in Bangladesh were making this issue extremely difficult by raising their fees and setting impossible conditions.

 

[bluesky]

Will the fanatic BD Muslims, who are willing to discard their own tradition, come out with a proper explanation why the Arabs are so barbaric and why should we accept their traditions only because we are followers of the same religion? Never do we torture the housemaids the way Muslim Arabs do. Will now again someone come out with a Fatwa that favors insulting maids and workers only because they are from a poor country?

 

[Homo Sapiens]

According to Al-Ghamdi, the high rejection rate was because the housemaids were unable to get used to the lifestyle in the Kingdom and could not acclimatize themselves to Saudi customs and traditions.

It seems that not only Bangladeshi female workers,but every other countries which sent female workers could not adjust to the Saudi 'custom and tradition' of slavery,physical torture,sexual abuse,rape,overwork,refusal to pay,emotional blackmailing and other things.All other countries which sent their female workers in Saudi Barbaria have same complaints be it Indonesia,Philippines or Morocco or any others.Have Saudi ever tried to reform their 'custom and tradition' rather than blaming the victims?I guess that would be unislamic?

 

[TopCat]

It seems that not only Bangladeshi female workers,but every other countries which sent female workers could not adjust to the Saudi 'custom and tradition' of slavery,physical torture,sexual abuse,rape,overwork,refusal to pay,emotional blackmailing and other things.All other countries which sent their female workers in Saudi Barbaria have same complaints be it Indonesia,Philippines or Morocco or any others.Have Saudi ever tried to reform their 'custom and tradition' rather than blaming the victims?I guess that would be unislamic?

Well, its not only Saudi but the house maid job has high turnover rate anywhere in the world. I see 3/4 different housemaids in our home per year. Its not that they were tortured but due to the low level of wages they care less for the job itself. Most of the time they leave for their home villages or sometimes married away or sometimes just dont feel like working for and rather stay home etc. Its a informal job anyways and stake is low for the employees.