Arab Nations Embraced Revolution, but not their domestic laborers

I came across this article from earlier this year, and thought it was worth a look. Written by Simba Russeau, the article rehashes the many horrors domestic laborers can suffer despite the uprising sweeping the Arab world. The domestic laborers are not benefiting from these uprisings. Like domestic workers stateside many invisible to most people. They suffer abuses like confinement and rape.

The article continues to discuss how many of the workers run away from their employers and head to their embassies, but because of lack of funds the embassies frequently can not send the workers back to their country of origin.

According to an article in the Saudi magazine Sayidaty:

A survey by the Saudi magazine Sayidaty titled ‘Maids Rights’ reveals that more than three million maids in the Arab world are subjected to conditions akin to slavery.

The survey found that across several countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, an absence of laws regulating the relationship between domestic workers and their employers allows abuse to run rampant.

Many of the stories in the article focused on rape and slavery. Pointing out often the domestic laborers have to pay their employers for room and board, which consumes most if not all of her check. The article points out the domestic laborers are recruited by the same means many women are into the sex trade by a promise of a good job that results in something entirely different once out of their country of origin. They are leaving places of great poverty for work aboard. A number of things influence the increase and demand for domestic laborers in the Arab world. One of which is the increasing number of Arab women entering the workforce.

Another startling figure:

According to a study by the Centre for Women and Gender Studies, nearly 85 percent of the United Arab Emirates population of four million is migrant workers. In Bahrain and Saudi Arabia 65 percent of the workforce are expats. In Kuwait it is 82 percent, and in Qatar almost 90 percent.

None of this information is new to those would are aware of domestic laborer issues. Nor are these issues limited to the Arab world. They can be seen everywhere including the West.

I'm growing more concerned about the rhetoric being employed to frame the narrative of domestic laborer the same way I dislike the rhetoric around sex work. There appears to be infantilization in and the foundations for a rescue industry to grow around it.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54665