Deprived women, mostly of South Asian origins, who come to Saudi Arabia as Umrah pilgrims and later take to working illegally as housemaids or domestic helpers are often faced with boundless challenges, which are often shrouded by issues of their illegal status here and runaway stories that are heard more often in Ramadan when the demand of housemaids is at its peak. Nusrat Liaquat (name changed), a Pakistani woman who works as a housemaid in Taif, came to the Kingdom eight years ago on an Umrah visa and overstayed as an illegal after her visa expired. “I have worked in many households in Makkah, Jeddah, and am presently working in Taif. I often shift from one house to another because of a general dissatisfaction over various issues,” said Liaquat. She recalled her experience in an Arab household. “The Arab woman for whom I worked was the principal of a school in Jeddah and her husband was a manager in a company. Their villa had many rooms and toilets which I had to clean every day. Moreover, looking after their six children was a tough job. I used to get up daily at 4 in the morning and work till midnight. I left because I was over-worked, and this for a mere pittance. Moreover, they did not treat me well,” said Liaquat, who now works for an Indian family in Taif. According to reports, everyday 2,000 illegal domestic helpers are arrested by the police, and in a year, the ratio of illegal maids working in the Kingdom has increased by 40 percent. These maids also face problems of non-payment or delays in their payments, and are often forced to do laborious work for long hours, even during the weekends. They earn around SR1800 to SR2000 per month for eight to nine hours of work per day. “I worked for 18 months and was paid for only 12 months. I did not have the courage to ask for more money as they threatened to hand me over to the police charging me with some false allegations. The woman of the house even warned that she would throw acid on my face,” said Raziyah (name changed), an Indian maid working in Makkah. These maids or ‘masis', as they are generally called in South Asian households, often suffer from severe health problems. Yet even when ill, they cannot be treated in hospitals and clinics as they lack a legal status. Recently, it was reported that an Indian housemaid in the Kingdom, Sehar Bano, died of T.B. “Bano had been ill for a long time, and despite that, she worked persistently. She couldn't visit a doctor and lived in a shabby place with her husband and kids, all of who were illegals. Her dead body was unidentified and she was buried like that. Her husband ran away fearing the police and the kids were deported back to India,” said Naseem Khan, a Pakistani national in Jeddah for whom Bano worked. For many of these maids, life becomes a “hide and seek” game of sorts as they have to endlessly shift their residences and place of work in the fear of detention, and consequently, deportation. Ruksana, a young illegal Pakistani national, is one such maid. “My mother used to work for a female teacher. When she was sick, her teenage brother replaced her. However, he was soon arrested and deported because of which I had to take over the work,” she said, adding that the “small” houses they live in are little defense against the Jawazaat raids but they do manage to escape when the timings of the raid are known in advance. “Otherwise, the (illegal) male members are detained and are beaten up while the women are only imprisoned for a few days until the legal documents are processed and they are deported,” said Ruksana. She said that at times, the Jawazaat or the police demand a ransom of a minimum of SR2,000, on the payment of which they are “left free after a few days.” In Jeddah, the maids typically reside in districts, such as, Al-Aziziyah and Sharafiah. In Makkah, most maids live in Al-Nuzha district. In some cases, the building care-taker, commonly referred to as the “haaris”, provides the maid with a small room built on the terrace so that she is kept away from the police raids. Rani, an Indian maid, who is on her husband's Iqama, illegally works as a housemaid. “Many times, our sponsor charges us a lot of money, as high as SR5,000, in order to renew our Iqamas. Even then, they keep delaying things and it is not easy to get the work done,” said Rani.
