What makes housemaids within only a few months of their arrival in the Kingdom run away from their rightful sponsors who have paid all of their fees? It is a question that has arisen of late in the wake of increasing numbers of runaway housemaids. Official statistics show that at least five housemaids run away from their sponsors every week in Yanbu, northwest of Jeddah, alone. It has been reported that some housemaids are victims of physical or psychological abuse by families or are simply treated like slaves. Other housemaids run away because they quickly discover that they can earn more money by “freelancing” than by working for one steady employer. They are still legal residents of the Kingdom with a valid Iqama. Experts say that housemaids run away mainly because of better offers made to them, usually by women brokers from their own countries. The runaway housemaid will usually live with a group of others of the same nationality. They have their own network for finding various jobs. However, it is not the money alone that attracts them; they also enjoy a different free lifestyle away from their legal sponsors including a weekend break on their own, the experts say. Saudi families say that they treat a housemaid like one of the family providing her with a good environment that will ensure that she stays with the family after fees have been paid to bring her here. “It is a problem that keeps increasing with few solutions in sight,” said Khaled Al-Juhani, employee at the Yanbu Royal Commission, referring to the rise of runaway housemaids. “A housemaid usually runs away for a better salary and when she is arrested, the original sponsor is asked to pay her ticket back home,” he said. “When she is back home, she gets a new work visa and comes back here again,” he said. There seems to be no end to this vicious cycle which does not happen in any other Gulf country, he added. Abdullah Al-Mutairi, a Saudi national who works in a private company, says that the household chores may be more than a housemaid can do alone, especially child care. Some housemaids come with the objective of running away after the three-month trial period, he said. Al-Mutairi proposed that the housemaid should sign a contract brokered by her embassy in the Kingdom with the stipulation that in case of her running away from her sponsor's house without a valid reason, she or her embassy should pay the family back all the expenses incurred during her recruitment which could be as much as SR10,000 these days. Housemaids are lured by better offers made by foreign brokers who call them on their cell phones with their illegal mouth-watering offers, said Yousuf Al-Juhani, a health care specialist in Yanbu. “They are here to make money, and they would jump at any better offer,” he said. The real culprits are the brokers who should be legally prosecuted, he said. The solution to this dilemma is through sub-contracts, said Salman Raddah, a security man. “A new mechanism of recruiting housemaids should be institutionalized where recruitment agencies train and hire out housemaids to families, he said. If she runs away, the family would not be left alone holding the bag,” he said. Authorities in Yanbu raided a house where a Saudi national sheltered runaway housemaids from Yanbu and Jeddah and provided their services to families who need their help for between SR500 and SR1,000 in illegal shelter and recruitment fees. The housemaid would receive up to SR1500 a month from her illegal new job at a new household compared to only SR800 from her legal sponsor. Officials say that the housemaids run away when they are taken out of the house, usually during a weekend picnic or shopping trip with the family where they just sneak away. Sponsors usually report the incidents to the police which monitor suspected areas where housemaids gather or take shelter with some illegal brokers. Undercover women help arrest those illegal women brokers, an official said. In a police sting operation, one illegal woman broker was arrested with two housemaids as she was handing them over to their new employer, the woman detective, at the Royal Commission Hospital in Yanbu. At least five to seven cases of runaway housemaids are reported weekly to the Yanbu Passports Department, said Maj. Lafi Samran, chief of the Passports Follow-up Department. Most reports are received on the weekends, he said. When arrested and investigated, runaway housemaids claim that they ran away because of ill-treatment from their sponsors, he said. “But that is not always true,” Maj. Samran said. “They, in fact, run away because of higher salaries and the relative freedom they enjoy when they leave the house,” he said. A unified contract is required where recruitment agencies sign contracts with sponsors according to the current labor laws or create an insurance policy that compensates the sponsor in case of a housemaid running away, he said. Maj. Lafi said that the citizens and residents who have offered to employ runaway housemaids should cooperate with the authorities by simply stopping to recruit them. Okaz/SG __
