DAMMAM: A housemaid in the Eastern Province who feared she might have to leave the Kingdom to obtain a transfer to Jeddah committed suicide in a bathroom at a recruitment office in Dammam Wednesday, Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported. Sources told the newspaper that the 27-year-old woman had only been in the country for five months and had asked to be transferred to Jeddah, where her mother lives. “She worked for those five months at the house of her sponsor and had a good record,” they said. “She was always in contact with her mother, and continually asked to be transferred to Jeddah. We told her that the rules didn't allow that, and that she'd have to leave the Kingdom and return on another visa.” They said that the sponsor, the recruitment office and the maid herself all agreed to the procedure. “But then everyone at the recruitment office was shocked to find she had committed suicide at the office,” they said. “Her sponsor had brought her to the office so we could take her to the airport. She asked to go to the bathroom, but after an hour and a half she still had not come out.” When the door was knocked down, the maid was found hanged by the neck. Police are investigating the incident.
