Modern Day Slavery in The Middle East

The Gulf States attracts migrant workers from poor nations because of the alleged opportunities created by the wealth of these nations. Most people go to the various countries like Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to do menial jobs like construction work, driving and as domestic workers. Obviously the nature of the jobs attracts less educated people and sadly also from poorer families.   This makes it a perfect recipes for them to be abused because of a perceived ignorance of their rights or because the employers knowledge  of their desperation.  

I have on several occasions heard of stories of how when these people get there their passports are confiscated by their employers. They are made to work under conditions that would pass as slavery.  The Daily Nation Newspaper of Kenya has a story revealing of some of the mistreatment that such workers undergo. There is a story of a Kenyan woman who had gone to Work in Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker who is accusing her employer of throwing her out of a third floor window, breaking her legs and hands.

The woman by the name of Fatma Athman, from the Coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya returned to Kenya last week with broken limbs and stories of near-slavery in Saudi Arabia where she was employed as a domestic worker in May of 2009. “She was lucky”, she said, “She landed in a swimming pool and not on the pavement”. She also says she would be subjected to a torrent of abuse for the slightest mistake; “I used to sleep for only two hours and I ate left-overs. That was really slavery,” she said in tears.

Fatma claimed that the children of her employer also sexually exploited her. She says that she worked for five months, but was paid for only one month with no explanation for the unpaid months . On the day her employer pushed her out the window, she said she was hanging clothes on the line. “I heard my employer saying ‘you are better off dead, you are better dead’”. She was rescued by the police who took her to the hospital. After a week in hospital, she was deported. “I left Saudi Arabia without luggage, not even my clothes. What I took is the few drugs I was given at the hospital.”

There is also the story of another woman by the name of Susan Wanjiku, a 29 years old mother of two who was promised a salary of Ksh 16,000 ($200) a month as a domestic worker in Jeddah.  She says that on arrival in Jeddah she was ordered to start work immediately. “I was shown 16 rooms to clean.” Her daily routine for the three months that she worked in Jeddah entailed her starting work at 3am and ending at 11pm without a break.

The worst dilemma is that with all that manual labor her food was rationed. She was only allowed to eat the family’s left overs and if there were none she would eat dog food. “Their children insult us. We were never let out of the house and for the three months I was there (in Jeddah), I did not see the sun. I only saw it when I landed in Nairobi. I fainted on alighting,” she said.

These women are lured in these countries by agents in the countries they go to and they have to pay a hefty amount from their already meager resources to be connected to an employer in these countries. They hope that the opportunity will improve their lives only to be treated as slaves. The ministry of foreign affairs has confirmed that they have had many cases of Kenyan women contacting the Kenyan embassy with various complaints. A spokesman said “We are receiving claims of unpaid wages, mistreatment and so far we have helped bring back a few.”

These kinds of reports are not only common with Kenyans. There are also many immigrant workers in the Middle East from other African countries and from the Asian Countries and they too have similar stories. When someone decides to mistreat the poor they risk the wrath of God being visited upon them. These people leave their countries to look for something to sustain their families back home. For someone to decide they are worth nothing is the height of human cruelty. Surely there is something the international community can do to protect these wretched of the earth.