Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to provide greater protection for foreign domestic workers after an Indonesian maid was hospitalized following alleged torture by her employer in Madina. “The ordeal to which this woman is reported to have been subjected is all too familiar and, sadly, only the latest in a long series of horrific cases of abuse and exploitation of women domestic servants in the Gulf region by their employers that have come to light,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “Women who go to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to be domestic workers face abuse and exploitation. They suffer multiple discrimination because of their gender, their low status as foreigners from poor and developing countries and because, as migrants, they are accorded very few rights by the host governments.” “At the root of the problem is the failure of the governments of the Gulf states to uphold the rights of women migrant domestic workers. Workers from countries like Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka underpin the Gulf states' economies – it is high time that they got a fair deal.” Amnesty
