DesertOcean

How awful for this poor maid. It seems not a week goes by that you don't read about a domestic helper being abused by their sponser. Everytime I read stuff like this I want to slap half of them upside the head:curse:


http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article23575.ece

Millhouse

it does piss you off when the tea tastes funny though.

lionheart

This represents the tip of the iceberg as there are probably hundreds of maids in KSA being abused.

coffindodger

Not just here in the costa del saudi sand pit.!!!
I hate to think how many else where in the GCC.

spart

The Philipines government is proposing banning domestic servants coming to the Gulf. Wonder why?

Madam Medusa

well yeah, suppose that is a good thing, but where will they go, there's sod all work in the phillipines which is why they all move abroad...those in hong kong/china aren't treated any better by the chinese than the arabs...

MM, xx

spart

True, it is a double edged sword. The money brought in by remittances means a lot, but the cost to families of having an absent mother is huge.

seven seas

Only half?

DesertOcean

Well, Tenpin was never my game, so 5 out of 10 is not bad...but in all fairness, I'm sure many arabs do treat their domestics with respect.

Millhouse

That will never happen in our lifetimes. If it does it will be a paper change only... they will come here thinking they are private teachers / nurses before being told they are a housemaid.

I know of several maids who came here thinking that they would be teachers/nurses only to find out that they are not.

shakh your bootie

I met attractive and intelligent former USSR chics with quals and experience in anything from med science to nuclear engineering to concert pianism. Cant judge the latter but the few scientific types I spoke to weren't lying none . Crying shame that they got nothing but to sell their charms at 1000 AED a night. Less, if you can drive a bargain.

We in the west are spoiled beyond our knowledge.

seven seas

For sure.

Bonny Boy

Indeed.


And ditto the Chinese and African girls - it's all for want of opportunity back home.

Saw an Al-Jazeera investigative programme about recruiting maids in Sri Lanka. The recruiters check out male deaths and hospital admissions to find the vulnerable families and then do the hard sell.

seven seas

They give vultures a bad name eh?
I know a Sri Lankan who went back 4 years ago after working his ass off. I asked him why he was going, and he said his dairy farm was ready, all he had to do was to orgainse the cows and the labour, and he woudl start his new business!!

Enough to buy 200 cows, and he's build a place for who knows how many family members on it too. It's that 1 in a 1,000,000 lottery thing that drives all the others to dream, and hope that maybe they will get there.

Bonny Boy

Yes, but then he wasn't a maid.

I'm more relaxed re the construction and service people working in the Mid-East - as you say, they can set themselves up well provided their agents and employers don't rip them off.

However, this thread is discussing maids, and they are particularly vulnerable to abuse. It's a lonely existence, with non of the camaraderie of working in a team.

BTW: I wonder if Indian TV has a sit-com called 'Ma'as Salaama Jaanu'?