lionheart

According to a Gulf News headline, an Egyptian resident here was jailed for illegal employing a housemaid. In fact, the article goes on to say that he was actually jailed for beating, starving and verbally abusing his maid. His punishment for the illegal sponsorship was only Dhs.50,000 rather than prison. It really annoys me how the media try to alarm people unnecessarily.

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Polic.../10292550.html

busybee2

the fine for illegally using a maid is 50k (increased a couple of years ago from 10k) and possible jail time/deportation. i suspect the beating etc is covered under a different case. what is alarming about the rules that if you are caught using a maid not on your sponsorship you will get a big fine. those are the rules of the country.

Bambi in Abu Dhabi

So, what if you employ a maid on a part-time basis with the permission of her sponsor? Is that also illegal?

busybee2

yes technically. anybody working for you should be sponsored by you. dont believe any of them that say i have my own visa, usually they have paid a local for the privledge and they can earn more money working part time for many people than for one person etc. and if caught you will be fined 50k and possible jail/deportation, but havent heard of that happening, but it completely messes up your life, as you loose your passport for the time it goes to court, and things here go on and on for a good few months to sort it out.

Bambi in Abu Dhabi

So, what if your friend loans you their maid for, say, 4 hours a week and you pay the maid directly. Is that illegal?

PS, sorry Lionheart to hijack your thread - it is indeed a very misleading and sensationalised headline.

commander

yes thats illegal...

Bambi in Abu Dhabi

Are you sure?

klaus3974

So what we learn from GN today? If you illegaly hire a maid, do not be so stupid to abuse her... she may go to the police!

Fairydust

The only legal way to have a maid working for you is to either sponsor yourself or hire on a parttime basis through an agency. Even on their husbands sponsorship is illegal

Sorry BB missed your post didn't mean to repeat info

Eva

Read it again LH.
It actually says he 'will also face jail' for beating, starving etc the maid.
His incarceration in all likelyhood is because he is not paying the 50k-which as Bbee states is an applicable fine for such an offence(not the crimes against the girl).

The tragedy of this is (1) the poor girl is in jail too because she worked for s'one other than her sponsor-like she studied employment law in the UAE on her flight from Bangladesh

(2) Her father altered her age from 17 to 20 so that she could finance the family- wtf is he doing?

Oh and don't you know? that's how newspapers sell by sensationalising other peoples' misery.


P.S Commander, I don't see any Lycra Lovlies such as yourself in the cycling photos????

busybee2

no worries, yes you must either use an agency (and they cover all the visa costs etc) or sponsor her yourself. any other way is illegal. if you use/borrow "whatever" your friends/neighbours maid etc for "whatever" period of time, you are doing so illegally and if found out, the maid gets thrown in jail, and both the sponsor and you will be liable for the 50k fine and it goes to court, and i know this because its happened to a few people that i know.... you have to give up your passport which goes to court, you go back and forth back and forth, this went on for going on 6 months.... and they were given the 10k fine (it was about 5 years ago) the sponsor (who was local) was put in jail i believe. havent heard that the expat goes to jail, but they could be jailed and deported afterwards.

klaus3974

So I guess there is not a (legal) market for babysitter neither? What are the chances they get you?

lionheart

No need for me to read it again, thanks. My point is that the HEADLINE is misleading, not the article itself. The headline implies that he got jail simply for illegally employing a maid, which is not the case.

Eva

Well, I disagree. The bird he is currently doing pertains to the illegal employment.He is yet to be sentenced for the more henious circumstances....
Just my opinion, as yours is yours.

busybee2

yes i read it was for the illegally employment of the maid nothing else has been decided yet.

i have know a few people get caught for maids, not for babysitting as i think they can get a babysitting visa which allows them to do it.