With regard to the article "Runaway housekeepers - Saudi sponsors push for protection" (Jan. 3), why does a maid run away? Remember this is a woman who left poverty and came to the Kingdom to earn money and a decent living for her family. She is used to hard work. She runs away usually because of abuse. We have heard the awful stories: beatings, torture, starvation, forced to sleep on the floor, no rest, a helpless slave. When a maid runs away, the employer should be closely investigated. A good person will rarely have runaway servants. In fact he will have poor people knocking on his doors asking if he needs more workers. Amira, Online response First of all, the Saudi employer has to prove that he paid the recruitment fee of SR 20-25,000 to a bank account. And the party (worker, agency, embassy, etc) who received the fees in his/her bank account is the one who should reimburse the Saudi employer. It is doubtful that the worker took SR 20-25,000 in advance because if she received this money in advance before her arrival in Saudi Arabia, she would not have traveled to the Kingdom at all. Avid1111, Online response Even you pay SR 20,000 for recruitment, the benefit is going to the Saudi government and the recruiting agent here. In many cases, a housemaid accepts the contract and pays a sum to get the visa without knowing how many hours she has to work and what her living conditions will be. They are coming here to feed their family and if they run away, there should be a reason behind it. Find out what the reason is and deal with it. Ashref, Online response
