DOMESTIC workers, whom some people like to call housemaids, become the hot topic, or to be precise talk of the town, with the approach and start of each Ramadan over the past years. I did mention in a previous opinion article on this issue, most families are so desperate to have a domestic help in the house — especially during this period — that it seems as if life would stop if housemaids were not already in their household or recruited for their household. Some families consider domestic help as the oxygen they cannot live without. Amid this, tales of runaway domestic helps, recruitment of illegal domestic helps, the marked-up price of illegal domestic helps and the ring that controls the burgeoning black marketeering in illegal domestic helps abounds with no possible solution in the future despite the problem staring us in the face. In my view, if the domestic helps were stocks of a company listed in the stock market, then that stock would be the preferred stock that people need to invest in. It is really ironic that it is only at the start of each Ramadan that people start crying in social media and newspapers about the biggest problem that is coming — lack of domestic help, and the exorbitant prices of recruiting a domestic help. According to reports, prices of recruiting a domestic help could reach up to SR5,000 for the month of Ramadan. Most families who do not have domestic help and have not been able to recruit one will not care about the cost and they will recruit illegals for whatever price. I really wonder where we are at. In the past the woman of the house had the upper hand when it came to specifying the tasks she wanted the domestic help to do, the salary that she will pay, the hours she wanted the worker to work and if that is not met, she would threaten to deport her and find another. This has changed. According to many women and some newspapers reports, the roles are reversed. It is now the domestic help that specifies the number of hours she would work, the type of work she will do around the house, the salary she wants and she will not accept any threats from the woman of the house and, instead of deportation, the domestic help would threaten to leave. In either case, my sympathies are with the domestic helps because they have left their homes to provide a better living for their families back home. I always call for a better treatment of those far away from their homes and to provide them with the salaries they deserve, decent working hours and most importantly, treat them with dignity. These are perennial issues that can only be sorted by bringing in the human element into force. However, here my focus is the total dependence of the Saudi families on domestic help as if Ramadan is not complete without their presence. It looks like the very purpose of recruiting domestic help during Ramadan is for the people of the house to sleep throughout the day and do nothing while calling on the domestic help to cook, clean, iron and carry the entire workload. Another issue that's bothering me is the question, why is there so much work during Ramadan? Is it to cook too much food? That defies the purpose of this holy month where we have to feel for the poor. If the mother of the house, who by nature, is supposed to take care of the housework is like this, then what type of message is she passing to her young daughters and children? I met a person during at an event and he was talking about the issue of the domestic help, and how he managed to find a domestic help for SR6,000 for Ramadan only to take care of his mother who is old. He said that the situation has changed now and they too are in need of a domestic help. He said that the domestic help he has hired is illegal and without legal residency permit. The blame, in his opinion, is on the Labor Ministry for not organizing this market and on the authorities for not cracking down on illegal domestic workers and the gangs that operate them. This is really something that authorities need to take a look into. Related authorities should crack down on gangs that are instigating domestic helps to run away from their sponsors. If there was a real effort, then this problem would have been solved long time ago. The gangs operating runaways are doing injustice to them by taking a large percentage from what they earn. They only provide them with poor accommodation and little food. He also highlighted the fact that these gangs hold sway in the domestic market from where these workers come from and control the domestic helps here with the lure of the lucre or threats that cow them. Also they are the ones who are creating this huge black market. Amid this situation, the issue needs to be tackled from to fronts. Authorities should crack down on these gangs and the runaways while streamlining the appointments of domestic helps from other countries. Also the countries from where domestic helps are being recruited should take action against such gangs at their end for they are operating from there. — The writer can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @anajeddawi_eng
