{UAH} Worker Exploitation in Saudi Arabia Runs Rampant

Worker Exploitation in Saudi Arabia Runs Rampant

• by s.e. smith
• October 6, 2014
• 6:00 am

• When Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa traveled to Saudi Arabia from Indonesia in search of a better life, she was hired as a domestic servant. She knew that working conditions would be difficult, thanks to reports from other domestic workers who'd come and gone from Saudi Arabia. What she didn't expect was being slashed in the face with scissors by her employer, putting her among the ranks of domestic workers who had been tortured with pins, nails, beatings and even death. She's among a growing number of migrant workers from around the world flocking to Saudi Arabia and enduring unspeakable abuse, an issue that's attracting increasing public attention.
  

As an incredibly wealthy nation with an exploding economy, Saudi Arabia is an extremely appealing place to work. The expanding economy offers a wide range of positions, and more and more wealthy families equates to a growing need for domestic employees. Saudi families and employers preferentially seek migrant workers, knowing that they will accept a lower rate of pay, and these workers are experiencing systemic exploitation and abuse.

Last year, a horrifying and graphic video of a man beating a migrant worker attracted attention from around the world, but it was far from the only instance of documented brutality against workers. Human Rights Watch notes that workers have been deprived of routine rights like being allowed to keep their passports, being able to call home and receiving their wages, with many Saudi employers engaging in wage theft in the belief that their employees can't and won't report it. In a country where migrant laborers have few rights and fear reprisals, these assumptions are not entirely unfounded.

On the BBC this week is a striking piece about the abuse of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, chronicling the experiences of Almaz (name changed), an Ethiopian migrant laborer who turned to Saudi Arabia for a chance at earning money for herself and her family. What makes the piece unique is not the documentation of abuse, something journalists from around the world have been dedicated to for years, but the format: It's a comic, a graphic representation of what this particular domestic worker went through.

The haunting piece chronicles her journey from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia, and her term of work with a vicious, abusive family that forces her to work from before dawn to the small hours of the morning. As the family shuffles her around between different households at whim, it becomes clear that Almaz will not receive her wages — and may never receive them — and that her family at home is suffering because she has no funds to send them. After incurring a serious injury, she's sent home, useless to the family who exploited her.

It's a chilling inside look at what life is like for maids working in Saudi Arabia, based on a true story told by an Ethiopian woman who spoke with Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock, the creators of the comic. They have kindly provided a .pdf version with higher resolution for those who have trouble reading the web version — which incidentally makes it a great activism tool, as you can print it out and distribute it to friends and others concerned about the abuse of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

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