Saudi officials Tuesday dismissed as blatantly one-sided a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released Tuesday that painted a picture of rampant abuse of domestic foreign workers in the Kingdom. The report is “unfair and one-sided,” said Suhaila Zain Al-Abedin of Saudi Arabia's National Society for Human Rights, an NGO that was formed in Feb. 2004 ahead of moves initiated by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to bring about comprehensive judicial reforms for better delivery of justice. (Related report on Page 3) “I wish that when rights groups do their reports they would listen to both sides of the story,” Al-Abedin told The Associated Press in response to HRW's 133-page report charging that domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are “often” subjected to abuse that in some cases amount to slavery, as well as sexual violence and lashings for spurious charges of theft or “witchcraft.” “We're being unjustly portrayed and the crimes against us by the workers are never mentioned,” Al-Abedin said. Crime rates in the Kingdom have increased in recent years because of crimes committed by foreign workers, Al-Abedin said. “They smuggle drugs, they turn apartments into liquor factories, they practice prostitution, they steal and sometimes they kill,” she said. “It's true that some of the workers suffer, but we also as a society are suffering from them too.” Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia have the same rights as Saudis under the revised labor law, and there is a misconception that Saudis have special rights, according to Khalid Abu-Rashid, Vice-President of the Paris-based International Justice Organization. “The labor laws use the term ‘worker', not ‘Saudi worker' or ‘expatriate worker',” Abu-Rashid made it clear Sunday in a speech during a Jeddah forum on workers' rights. But HRW chose to ignore this by stating that expatriates are denied rights afforded to other workers under Saudi labor laws. Col. Fahad Al-Wizyany director of the foreign division at the passport administration said runaway domestic workers, such as maids and drivers without residency permits, are usually found involved in drug dealing, alcohol distribution and prostitution. “These dens are negatively affecting our society,” Al-Wizyany said. “Everyday we catch at least 2,000 illegal maids in Jeddah alone,” he said. HRW said that rather than receiving justice, domestic workers – most of them migrants from Asia – are more likely to face counter-accusations of witchcraft, theft or adultery. “Excessive workload and unpaid wages, for periods ranging from a few months to 10 years, are among the most common complaints,” said the report. “In the best cases, migrant women in Saudi Arabia enjoy good working conditions and kind employers, and in the worst they're treated like virtual slaves. Most fall somewhere in between,” said Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the HRW's Women's Rights Division. “The Saudi government should extend labor law protections to domestic workers and reform the visa sponsorship system so that women desperate to earn money for their families don't have to gamble with their lives,” Varia said. The Saudi Shoura Council is already in the process of doing away with the sponsorship system. ‘Again, HRW said the labor law excludes domestic workers, denying them rights guaranteed to other workers, such as a weekly rest day and overtime pay. However, the government has already issued directives for a weekly rest day. Moreover, the broader issue of domestic workers' rights is being addressed as part of ongoing labor reforms. ‘Varia agreed that Saudi government has some good proposals for reform, but added that “it has spent years considering them without taking any action.'” It's now time to make these changes,” she said. The New York-based Human Rights Watch report titled ‘As If I Am Not Human: Abuses against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia,” was the result of two years of research and is based on 142 interviews with domestic workers, senior government officials and labor recruiters in Saudi Arabia and labor-sending countries. There are 5.6 million foreign workers in Saudi Arabia. Ahmed Al-Gahmdi, PR officer at the Ministry of Social Affairs said in response to HRW's report based on its 142-strong sample base: “We receive complaints of huge numbers of domestic workers but just a few of them are because of abuse or violence by their employers.” HRW stated in its report that it has no reliable statistics on the exact number of abuse cases, yet it made sweeping generalizations based on what one Saudi source said was a “pick and choose” sample base. Perhaps the strongest answer to HRW's 133-page attack is contained in a published statement Tuesday by Minister of Justice Dr. Abdullah Aal Al-Sheikh, Minister of Justice, who said in an interview with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Arabic daily that the large number of expatriates in Saudi Arabia is in itself evidence against making generalizations about discrimination and abuse. – With reports from Maha Sami Aboulola of Saudi Gazette and Agencies __
