Female domestic help are to be exported to the Gulf country, stirring a public outcry, reports Reem Leila The Egyptian Ministry of Labour Force and Migration (MLFM) has signed a unique deal with the Saudi Industrial and Commercial Chamber to send 12,000 female domestic maids every year, for nearly 10 years, to serve in Saudi homes. Their fees will range from 500 to 800 Saudi riyals (approximately LE750 to LE1,200). The protocol is to come into force by 1 June. According to the agreement, domestic servants who are to travel to Saudi Arabia are to be under the age of 30, should be given proper residence, medical care and air tickets to be paid for by their sponsor. This is in addition to working according to Saudi labour laws. Foreign workers constitute nearly 50 per cent of the overall labour force in Saudi Arabia, where Egyptians make up 27 per cent. Usually from developing countries, the foreign work force in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries consider themselves lucky to have escaped the poverty back home and seek to provide a better future for themselves and their relatives. There are no definitive statistics on the actual number of Egyptian domestic servants working in Saudi Arabia, not least because many of them are in the country illegally. In Saudi Arabia, as in other Gulf countries, all foreign workers are employed under the sponsorship system. Workers are usually invited by their employers which can be an enterprise, an individual or even the state when it concerns a post in the public sector. According to MP Mustafa Bakri, the system creates a series of serious problems. Migrant workers are completely under the mercy of their employers who usually take their passports. Accordingly their freedom of mobility and movement is limited. They are prevented from changing jobs and cannot leave their place of work. Some do not receive their salaries on time, if at all, and are mistreated. "Maids are extremely humiliated in these countries," Bakri said. "In addition to being overworked, underpaid and not given the agreed salary, and often held in complete isolation inside the home they work in, female domestic workers are sometimes raped by their employers. So why should we put our women, their future and freedom in danger?" Expressing the anger of many Egyptians in the country and abroad, Bakri submitted an interpellation summoning Aisha Abdel-Hadi, MLFM minister, to the People's Assembly to explain the situation. Abdel-Hadi did not show up. Bakri said the accord does not include a single item regarding legal protection that could be provided to the hired help. "In case there's a problem, will the ministry be able to provide them with any legal assistance to prevent or at least lessen their abuse?" asked Bakri. Some embassies of countries with large domestic servant populations -- Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Philippines -- maintain shelters or what are called safe houses in which they can take refuge from ill-treatment until they are sent back to their homeland. "Despite these safe houses, it is common knowledge that runaways are almost always returned to their sponsors. Will Egypt be able to provide an equivalent shelter and support to runaway maids?" Bakri asked. Bakri's concerns are not new; they have surfaced repeatedly over the years. But MP Hamdi El-Sayed, head of the People's Assembly Health Committee, brought up what could be wholly new and frightening incidents: the alleged stealing and subsequent sale of a servant's vital organs for transplants, including the kidney and parts of the liver, unbeknown to the victim and naturally resulting in severe health problems for them in the future. "The maids are usually given a medical check-up during which they are anesthetised. The sought-after organ is then removed without either their approval or knowledge," El-Sayed said. The financial return, El-Sayed added, was simply not worth jeopardising their lives and health. "Abdel-Hadi was previously requested to establish a centre to train females on how to be good housekeepers or domestic maids and to make them available in the local market. The plan was not intended to send them abroad," he added. Many Egyptians are dismayed that Egypt, once the main provider to other Arab countries of doctors, engineers, teachers, scientists and journalists, is now exporting servants. They are particularly angered by the recent trend: while many Arab countries are reducing the number of Egyptian workers practising white collar professions, the number of servants is increasing. "It just symbolises Egypt's role in the region," said Alaa Lotfi, a journalist. According to the MLFM, the pact with Saudi Arabia aims at protecting Egypt's household workers. Throughout the past years informal workers, male or female, having gone to Gulf countries, have been abused, ill-treated and sometimes jailed. According to the recent contract, the ministry will have a copy signed between the employer and the employee, thus giving the ministry the ability to defend their rights when they are violated. There will also be a joint committee that will meet twice a year to follow up on the status of Egyptian workers and help solve any problems.
