JAKARTA: Indonesian women looking to earn a solid living, despite often dreadful conditions, will have to continue to look for work outside the ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia after the kingdom again upheld a ban on recruiting maids from the Southeast Asian country. “It is really a difficult situation for us because we already had a few employers lined up and were ready to prepare, but now we look other places,” said one woman, who had been in contact with one of the few recruitment offices still open in the city. The vast majority of recruitment offices have closed shop in the past year, after Riyadh barred Indonesian women from working in the country. Saudi Arabia claims its ban on Indonesian, and Philippines, workers is a result of too many restrictions on Saudi employers. The Indonesian Overseas Labor office told Bikyamasr.com that those restrictions have been put in place because of the “stories of violence, rape and slavery that we had been getting for years and it was time to protect our citizens if Saudi Arabia wasn't.” In January, Saudi alluded that it could end the ban on both countries, bring hope to the many women struggling to find work abroad. According to Philippines Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz, the two countries are expected to sign a new agreement that would allow Filipino maids to return to the Gulf country. But it didn't happen. Despite the July 2011 ban on their recruitment, Saudis were still hiring Filipino maids from neighboring countries and skirting the regulations against hiring directly from the East Asian country. At least one Saudi national was quoted as saying by Arabianbusiness.com that he could hire a Filipina maid from Doha for one-fourth of the prevailing charges back in his home country where the rates range between SR20,000 to 25,000. But sources in the recruitment business told The Peninsula that since the Filipina and Indonesian maids going to Saudi Arabia from Doha are quite few, the possibility of shortages taking place or the hiring charges going up were ruled out. Currently in Qatar, one must spend QR8,000 to QR8,500 to hire a Filipina maid, while the cost is slightly more at between QR9,000 and QR10,000 for an Indonesian maid, a manpower agency official told the newspaper. “We don't think the charges would go up due to the rising demand in the neighboring Saudi Arabia because we are preparing to bring maids from other countries, among them, Kenya and Cambodia, which is likely to bring the hiring costs down,” the official said. But not everyone is pleased with the decision. A number of Filipina maids living in Dubai told Bikyamasr.com that they would “never consider” going to Saudi after hearing stories from their friends and families. “They are treated like slaves and it is horrible,” Maria, who asked that her surname remain anonymous, told Bikyamasr.com. “They have been beaten, tortured and raped by their Saudi employers and the government does nothing, so why would we consider going there?” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/yMo3T Tags: Ban, Indonesia, Maids, Philippines, Saudi Section: Features, Gulf, Latest News, Saudi Arabia, Southeast Asia
