http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article57282.ece
Raped maid to be repatriated
By RODOLFO C. ESTIMO JR. | ARAB NEWS
Published: May 25, 2010 00:41 Updated: May 25, 2010 00:41
RIYADH: A Filipina housemaid in Taif who had been repeatedly raped by her employer told Arab News on Sunday that she will soon be repatriated to the Philippines.
The maid telephoned Arab News to express gratitude for bringing her case to the attention of the Philippines consulate, which had in turn sought the help of the authorities to find her.
The housemaid was telephoning from a police station in Taif's Al-Salamah district where she and her employer had been asked to report.
The consulate's case officer and community coordinator accompanied the maid.
"At about 11 a.m. today (Sunday) we finally arrived at the police station in Al-Salamah district," she said. She added that she wanted her sponsor to be jailed but agreed to drop the case in exchange for immediate repatriation and SR10,000, plus two months unpaid salaries. The maid was being paid SR800 a month.
"As part of the settlement, I would be repatriated immediately. I will, however, have to pay for my plane ticket," the housemaid said.
The maid also thanked consulate officials headed by Consul General Ezzedin H. Tago and the community coordinator in Taif for following up on her case with the police.
The maid had been working for the Saudi family for three years. During the first two years, her employer's wife, who is a schoolteacher, was nice to her but began maltreating her a year ago after she returned from holiday.
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http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article57674.ece
Nepal maids from Kuwait being dumped in Riyadh
By SHAHEEN NAZAR | ARAB NEWS
Published: May 26, 2010 01:35 Updated: May 26, 2010 01:35
JEDDAH: At least two Nepalese housemaids are left every day at the gates of the Nepalese Embassy in Riyadh. Many of the housemaids, who have legal Kuwaiti residency documents, are brought to the Kingdom on visit visas, made to work for Saudi families and then abandoned or brought to the embassy.
"Some Saudis hire housemaids from their relatives and friends in Kuwait. But such women cannot be sent back to Nepal via Kuwait as it would incur extra expenses, including a SR10,000 fine because they have overstayed their visit visas. The easiest thing to do is to bring them to our embassy, sometimes with their passports and one-way tickets," said Khadga Prasad Dahal, first secretary at the Nepalese Embassy.
On May 16, the Nepalese Embassy repatriated 16 Nepalese housemaids, six of whom had come from Kuwait. Three of the women were either physically sick or mentally deranged.
There are an estimated 50,000 Nepalese housemaids in Saudi Arabia with 10,000 in Riyadh alone, said Dahal, adding that the maids are illegal as Katmandu has banned Nepalese nationals from working as domestic servants abroad. To get around the ban, Nepalese women, many of them uneducated, are brought to Mumbai where visas are arranged at the Saudi consulate.
"Flying from Mumbai means they are coming here without our knowledge. So it becomes impossible to keep track of them," said Dahal, adding that Kuwait-based housemaids are brought to the Kingdom without their consent.
He added that since Nepalese women are not trained like women from the Philippines or Sri Lanka, they are unable to perform basic jobs like handling electrical appliances and so make mistakes, something that angers their employers resulting in beatings and torture. The housemaids then either run away or the sponsor tries to get rid of them. Those in Jeddah are dumped near the Sharafia Bridge. Since Nepal does not have a consulate in Jeddah, said Dahal, many Nepalese women go to the Indian Consulate. He said the Nepalese Embassy tries to help such women by finding temporary employment so that they could earn money to buy tickets to Nepal.
Those living in and around Dammam also receive help from the embassy. But for the Nepalese housemaids in the rest of the Kingdom, life can become difficult.
Many women at the shelter are pregnant or physically sick. "We try to expedite such cases on humanitarian grounds," said Dahal, adding that three pregnant women were repatriated to Nepal in the last 20 months.
"We have no control over our people going to India and getting Saudi visas," said Hamid Ansari, Nepal's ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
"Once Saudi Arabia opens it embassy in Katmandu there would be no justification for people to go to India. It would automatically stop all illegal activities.
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