Why Do They Flee?

Director’s Comment: The saga of expatriate housemaids and family drivers (“modern slaves”) in Saudi Arabia and other oil rich Arab Gulf Sheikdoms continues unabated. It is estimated that there are about fifteen to twenty million expatriate cheap laborers in the autocratically ruled Arab Sheikdoms, Kingdoms and Sultanates in the Arabian Peninsula. The majority of these unlucky laborers (eight to ten million) work in Saudi Arabia and are considered to be among the most abused migrant workers in the world according to human rights groups and activists. It is also estimated that between one to two million of these abused and neglected men and women (mostly from Asian countries) are housemaids and family drivers in Saudi homes. They serve around the clock for meager salaries and can be physically punished and sexually abused by any family member of the house in which they toil. Their passports are confiscated by their sponsors (masters) the day that they arrive in Saudi Arabia, making the workers hostages of their employers. The only way for them to change employers, travel or spend time with their compatriots is to run away. They have no recourse to air their grievances, especially those workers who are non-Muslims. The embassies of the countries from which they hail rarely help them because most of those countries are recipients of Saudi government largess, including subsidized oil supplies. The workers cannot organize labor unions because all forms of civil society in Saudi Arabia are forbidden, even for native Saudi citizens.
Read Article