- Malayali Girl from Ernakulam had a narrow Escapes from Sex Mafia
- Victims of Gulf flesh trade brings 'nationless' children--Malayalis arrested for kidnapping Malayali girls from Gulf airports Malayali Lady duped by Travel Agent Rescued
- UAE families employ more housemaids than the number of family members: Official
- Dubai: June 12, 2002. The UAE families' dependence on Asian housemaids has reached an alarmingly high rate as some families employ three or more domestic helpers, said senior UAE official in an interview with the Gulf News. Amin Hussain Al Amiri, Sharjah Consultative Council member and Director of Blood Transfusion Services, said in the interview that in some UAE homes the number of maids exceeds the number of family members. While some families do with one housemaid, others hire three or four, including a baby-sitter and driver.
- According to the UAE Ministry of Planning statistics for 2000 there are 80,000 national and expatriate families in Sharjah. Assuming each family has a maid, there would be some 80,000 maids working in Sharjah alone. However the Ministry data revealed 16,487 entry permits were granted to housemaids in Sharjah last year, indicating the demand for housemaids despite repeated calls to curtail the number, the Gulf News report said.
- Apart from doing the household chores, he noted, the maid often handles all the children's affairs, gets them dressed, takes them to school and accompanies them to parks and other places.
- Often the mother, even if she does not work, places the entire responsibility of the children on the maid. Consequently, he explained, the children develop an emotional tie with their maids and depend on them for everything. "They (children) tend to be influenced by the maid's habits, be they good or bad. We should not forget that Asian maids have customs that are completely different from our habits and Islamic traditions. This could affect the children's behaviour, language and affiliation to their country," he warned. The UAE authorities may consider a limit on the number of maids employed in each home.
- Sharp increase in the number of housemaid Absconding
- Ashraf K.M
- According to another report in the Arab News, there has been a 25 percent increase in the number of runaway Sri Lankan maids from Saudi Arabia. Quoting the the Sri Lankan consulate, Arab News reported that it dealt with 250 cases of house maid absconding in the first five months of 2002, compared to 200 cases in the corresponding period in 2001 and 531 in the whole of that year. Of 175 maids who were provided shelter at the consulate in the recent months, 150 have returned home. "It is against this background that the consulate has made an insurance scheme applicable to take care of mounting expenses involved in their stay, upkeep, health care and repatriation," Consul General A.C.M. Ibrahim told reporters over the weekend.
- The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), which has been promoting the island's manpower overseas, as well as the welfare and protection of migrant workers since 1985, has an ongoing Suraksha (protection) Insurance Scheme. It has been made mandatory for those leaving for employment abroad to register with the SLBFE and its insurance scheme. The insurance scheme has helped the consulate a great deal in meeting the expenses incurred in the case of runaway maids especially. They are accommodated on the top floor of the consulate, some of them need hospital treatment and they need to be provided with a one way ticket home. The consulate draw funds for all such expenses from the SLBFE's insurance plan.
While the local recruiting agent in Sri Lanka pays the premiums, who gets paid by his counterpart in the Kingdom. The consulate has met with success in resolving 75 percent of the cases of runaway maids.- The Consulate establish contact with maids' sponsors and bring about a compromise. If the sponsors does not take back their maids, he will clear the dues of the maids and pay for their one-way ticket home. In 25 percent of cases, maids were not been able to furnish contacts of their sponsors. Such maids are left with two choices - deportation by the police or waiting until SLBFE's insurance money is received.
- Lack of knowledge of Saudi culture, lifestyle and language among incoming maids are the main reasons for their frustration. "There are complaints of harassment, torture and physical abuse," Ibrahim said, adding that there was urgent need for proper orientation of all Sri Lankans heading for the Kingdom or elsewhere in the Gulf. Sri Lankan expatriates in the Western Province total 100,000. Sixty percent of these are housemaids, drivers and laborers. The rest of the Kingdom has 180,000 expatriates from the island nation. (keralamonitor.com)
- Growing Flesh trade from Keral to the Gulf creates 60 nationless children
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, June 12: Nearly 60 young Malayali women from Kozhikode's poor coastal villages have returned from the Gulf countries with the children of no-man's-land after being sexually used and discarded, according to newspaper reports. The issue has landed the local authorities in a fix.The women were recruited and sent by agents to various Gulf countries promising jobs as housemaids, ayahs or janitresses. But some became temporary wives, many turned sex slaves, and some ended up with Malayali touts feeding the Gulf's flesh trade - to be passed from brothel to brothel, and in some cases, Gulf country to country, the New Indian Express reported today.
Two girls died of AIDS.
According to the paper, two dozen kids born to these women from their Gulf liaisons are growing up without nationality and the law wants to deport them. "These women get the kids fathered by Arabs mentioned in their own passports as Arab nationals, when they are forced to return. They believe this would help their kids to return abroad when they grow up. But few Arab countries entertain such claims on their citizenship, and the law says all overstaying foreign nationals should be deported," the paper said quoting City Police Commissioner Sanjeev Patjoshi, who is also the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO).
Police have already issued notices to two women warning them against letting their "foreign national" children overstay. The women had been temporarily married to a UAE and an Iranian national respectively after they reached UAE to be housemaids. They were discarded soon after the first bore two sons, and the second, two daughters, the paper said.
"It may not be easy for them to get Indian citizenship after so many years. But we can't arrest and deport them either, not when the countries of which they are supposed to be nationals won't accept them," the Commissioner said. The mothers, both struggling to survive, have been asked to approach the UAE and Iranian embassies in New Delhi and to get the kids their nationalities. "I have also sought advice of the Ministry of External Affairs," the Commissioner said. The police in the nearby Malappuram district have also identified at least seven such cases.
According to New Indian Express , it's not the Arabs, but Keralites who exploited many. According to one married woman, an agent took her to Muscat promising a cleaning woman's job and convincing her that that they need to behave as man and wife to avoid visa problems. He put her up in a building in Muscat and raped her before beginning to bring in local customers.
"I know no language but Malayalam and could seek no help. I was sent back after seven months when I contracted a bad disease. My husband said we should not complain to anyone," she said.
The paper said in spite of everything, illiterate or semi-literate women from these parts still queue up for their passports to escape poverty and pass on the copies to the many travel agencies for Gulf recruitments, ready to do any job abroad.
Malayali Girl from Ernakulam had a narrow Escapes from Sex Mafia
Forced to give statement in front of Video Camera Cochin: Ending one and half month period saga, the Malayali women from Ernakulam who was recruited by a Malayali agent to work in Oman as housemaid, has reached home safely. In a special interview given to keralamonitor at Cochin, the girl has alleged that even though she was recruited by one Malayali agent -Mr.Maniraj from Ernakula to work as housemaid, he had been behaving badly with her.Full Report