The Maid - The Loan

Nora*'s mother had just secured a deal with a sugar factory when it offered Rp13,000,000 (S$1,880) for Nora's two-year old quarter acre of sugarcane plantation.

The mother will use the money to renovate part of their house as she had the feeling that very soon, Singaporeans will want to visit her family.
Time is running out before these Singaporeans appeared at their front door.

Since Ramadhan is next month, it is better that the mother start renovating the house now.

Nora could not said no to her mother, as what the woman was earlier assured by her daughter, come July, Nora will receive her first salary of about Rp3,500,000.
But the mother did not know that Nora had spent two months idling in Batam before her first employer employed her to work with his family in the western part of Singapore.

And, Nora knew that she was cheated by her Indonesian agency.
Since she paid her own passage to Batam, she knows salaryless working in Singapore will be reduced to six, and at the most seven months.
Not nine months as she is facing now!

Nora's family was at the most critical period when her father met with an accident and their failed chilli plantation due to erratic weather that I had blogged earlier, exhausting all financial resources.
They were left totally dry but her children have to be in school and life has to go on.

So, Nora took drastic and unwavering step leaving her 3 young children with her aged mother and bedridden father to be in Batam last Ramadhan.

When others working in faraway land all converged home in Ramadhan to be together for the festive Syawal, Nora left home during the fasting month, leaving her children not only without their father who had simply left his family to pursue his own living, but without their mother too.

To reach Batam, Nora desperately went around asking for loan.

Normally Rp800,000 (about S$116) would be more than enough airfare.
But it was the peak period Ramadhan.

Since demand was more than supply, ticket prices went spiraling, that Nora had to ask for another loan of Rp500,000.

I used to fly to Jakarta from Hang Nadim Airport in Batam to Jakarta.
It costs less than S$100 for return ticket.

But last year, when I offered to pay a family of four's passageway to return home to Semarang from Batam, to spend their Syawal with their aged parents, whom they had not for met more than ten years, ticket price was already Rp1.2 million (about S$170).
And it was around two months away from Syawal.

The husband's mother was always in tears, longing for her only son and never before seeing her two granddaughters, when the couple called home.

Bear in mind, it was after a field day running counter after counter for wanting to secure the cheapest price.
Bear in mind, it was weeks before Ramadhan, in July, not August, and the ticketing girl said, ticket price went up each passing day.

So, I understand Nora's predicament.

******

The loan had been bothering Nora.
It was really a heavy burden on her shoulder, the biggest stone she ever had on her shoulder, as there was no such thing as to wait for nine months to earn her first salary working in Saudi.

And to tell her mother that her first salary will only be in September, she did not know how to create sentence from the limited words she has.

******

The cruel maids' world, she only knew and encountered after her two years in Abha, Saudi Arabia.

After her two years of working abroad, after repeatedly hearing others kept saying, she was one of the exceptionally lucky maid, it led her to make a nazar, a promise to slaughter a goat and holding a feast for her village folks after completion of honouring her another two years with the same employer.

When her second two-year contract was completed, upon landing at the airport, immediately after exiting the immigration counter, another maid who returned home together within her group from Jeddah, was struggling and gripping tight, holding Nora's baggage from being pushed away by unknown and suspicious men, hovering around the airport preying from victims.

These vultures, as if being tipped-off, always knew the schedule of return-home maids and many had fallen to become penniless victims, robbed of belongings upon stepping on homeground.
These maids often return to their families not only financially broke, but with shattering brokenhearted too.

The goodhearted maid refused to let Nora charted her home journey with just her and the driver.
Since it was almost nighttime, despite her children and family were all eagerly waiting for her, she was dragged to follow the goodhearted maid home, in Surabaya too.
She was forced to spend her night there.

The 'saint' maid personally chose reliable transportation for Nora to safely reach her waiting family.

******

Before Nora embarked in search of greener pasture in Singapore, she made a prior nazar, to do the same as what she did before.

But when she worked with her first employer here, she often complained to HIM, what HE gave her was not what she wanted.
She told GOD, her nazar is no trivial matter to look into.
She will do more when HE Gives her more than she had asked for.

As what she told Me, this time, upon completion of her two-year contract, she will qurban, slaughtering a kibasy.
She will ask someone to find the best mountain goat with good meat, the biggest mountain goat yet to be found.
She hope all Nyai's Children will be able to join in the feast she will be going to offer to all her villagefolks.
GOD willing.    

******

I had told My Husband of Nora's loan since March.

To Him, just get the heaviest stone off on her shoulder, just pay up for her.
After all, it costs Us less than RM400.

Yes, I'll pay up, but not then, in March.
I'll wait until July.
No wonder the zakat, the tithe, He handed Me to give away early this year, I kept postponing.

****** 

Yesterday, I told Nora, since it is already July, the promised time has come for her to honour her loan payment.
The promise will be fulfilled when we reached City Plaza.

Nora quickly closed her mouth with both hands when she heard herself shouting loudly
"Ibu..."

Upon signing the transfer slip, she claimed weightless on both shoulders.
The heaviest stone had automatically slipped away.

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (13)

Daring Escape (3)

Al-Jazirah newspaper reported, on May 18, police arrested and questioned three Indonesians, following the discovery of a body of an Indonesian maid near a wedding hall in Al-Naseem district a week earlier.

The woman had called the police before her death.
They traced the call made by the Indonesian maid in her 30s.

She was trying to escape from her sponsor by climbing down through the window of a third floor apartment.
The woman fell and suffered serious head injuries.

Three Indonesian men then took her home where she died.
The men panicked, and they then dumped her body near the wedding hall.

******

(Okaz photo)
Another Indonesian housemaid had her life shortened in the first Thursday on December 2010.
She met death from a fall through the window of a third-floor apartment in Jeddah’s Al-Safa District.

Owner of the apartment told Okaz/ Saudi Gazette the housemaid had escaped from her original sponsor in Hail.
The maid absconded from her employer in the northwestern town of Hail.
She then worked for the owner of the apartment in Jeddah.

She tried to escape when she learned that her former employer had traced her whereabout.
He was on his way to fetch her home.
The maid’s sponsor had earlier contacted the owner of the apartment in Hail, asking him to hold to her while waiting for his arrival.

But the maid upon learning her original sponsor would come and get her, she tried escaping from him using a rope made from knotted clothes.
She fell to the ground and instantly died.

The operations room of a police station in Northern Jeddah received a report about the incident.
Police found the woman’s body lying in a pool of blood.
The body was then transferred to the Forensic Medicine Administration to determine other injuries other than those caused by the fall.

An official letter will then be sent to her country’s consulate in preparation for her burial.

******

A 29-year-old Indonesian maid was only into her third month with her sponsor before she decided to jump from the employer's third floor home in the Al-Kakiya district of Makkah last December 23.

She was trying to escape to work illegally elsewhere but ended up in intensive care unit suffering from fractured bones and internal bleeding.

******

A driver offered a man of recruiting a new maid through illegal channel after his helper disappeared several week earlier.

But the man began to suspect the driver's activities.
The driver was under his observation.
To his surprise, he saw his former maid enter the drivers premises opposite his own home.

Okaz/SG reported the driver confessed to police that he had tempted the man's housemaid away from her employer.
She was promised better and more lucrative work.

The driver was then under detention for helping her to flee and for giving her shelter.
The woman was arrested in the last week of August.

******

Maid Leads Police To Liquor Den 
By MD RASOOLDEEN 

RIYADH: The arrest of a runaway housemaid led Riyadh police on Monday to a gang of criminals who were distilling liquor in Riyadh’s Sultana district.

The woman was stopped by police and questioned about her legal status.
They learned that she was a runaway maid who fled her sponsor five months ago.
According to police, the maid then fell prey to a group of men who had offered her a job with benefits, including an annual home-visit plane ticket.
But instead of employing her as a maid, the gang sexually exploited the woman.
“I had no choice except to give in for their pleasure since they threatened to take me to the police if I disagreed,” the maid is alleged to have told the police.
The maid led police to the location where they found six barrels of liquor, three small gas cylinders and three single burner cooker — all equipment used to distill fermented liquid into spirits.
The woman and an unreported number of men involved in the gang were detained.

Source: Arab News - April 29, 2010

******

Christine, a 26-year-old woman from Kenya.arrived in Saudi Arabia in 2009 at Jeddah’s international airport.

She obtained her work visa at the Saudi embassy in Nairobi, where she was promised a job as a children’s English teacher.

She arrived with seven other women, all in the same situation as she was.
Her "sponsor" came to pick her up at the airport.
He was accompanied by his wife and mother-in-law.
They told her that, for the time being, she would be teaching English to their own children.
But she quickly realised that she had been tricked.
Instead of taking her to their home, she went to the home of friends of theirs, where several Kenyans were already working as maids.
There, they removed her passport and cell phone (all her contact numbers in it), saying they would be returned the day she return home.
Then she was sent to work in the sponsor's mother-in-law’s home.
There, she met another Kenyan woman who had been working as a maid for two months.
She warned Christine of what lay ahead.
One month later, she was sent back to her main employer’s home.
There began a truly horrible period that lasted around four months.
She slept in a tiny, cramped room with a thin, hard mattress on the floor.
She had to ask for permission to eat.
She worked like crazy, doing all of the housework, from ten in the morning to five or six the next morning non-stop.
She wasn’t allowed to call home for two months.
When she finally did, she learned that her father was very ill and had been hospitalised.
She asked her employer – to whom she was not supposed to be allowed to talk to – if he could pay her salary so that she could return home to see her father.
She hadn’t been paid anything so far – her monthly salary was supposed to be of SR800.
But the employer and his wife refused, going so far as to tell her that, even if her father did pass away, it wouldn’t be too serious!
That’s when she understood that her only chance would be to run away.
Once out of the house, she took a taxi that brought her to the Guinean consulate.
She had a lot of trouble getting officials there to understand what was going, given that she only speak English. She finally ended up waiting for two months in the consulate’s courtyard.
Finally, she met Mohamed, 27, born in Africa but lives in Saudi Arabia...

Continue reading ....:

http://habarizanyumbani.jambonewspot.com/2010/09/08/runaway-kenyan-maid-describes-saudi-ordeal-i-worked-day-and-night-and-was-never-paid/ 

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (12)

Daring Escape (2)

Runaway Filipino Maid Claims She Was Raped  
By RODOLFO ESTIMO JR. 

RIYADH: A Filipino runaway staying in a villa some 250 km north of Riyadh has sought the assistance of the Philippine Embassy to get home, according to Vice Consul Roussel R. Reyes, Philippine Embassy officer–in-charge.
“The maid told us that she wanted to be with her two kids in the Philippines because she missed them,” he told Arab News on Wednesday.
He said that as soon as the staff of the embassy's Assistance to Nationals Section locate the villa where the maid and six other runaway maids are staying a team would be dispatched to ensure she is rescued.
The case of the maid, whose name is not being published to protect her privacy, was referred to the embassy after Arab News learned on Tuesday night that she wanted to go home.
Arab News contacted the maid after being notified of her situation by a community leader in Dammam.
The woman came to the Kingdom as a caregiver, but ended up as a maid earning SR800 a month.
Twelve days into this job, the sponsor returned her to the placement agency.
“My employer saw that working as maid, my nose was bleeding,” she said.
The agency was able to look for a job for her but worked for only 24 days because she claims her employer raped her.
“That was on Sept. 21, and on the same day I escaped and reported (the incident) to the agency, which did nothing when I complained that I was raped.
Eventually the agency got another job for me,” she said.
The six other maids do not want to be taken by the embassy because they are employed and do not want to return home.
“This is a simple case of human trafficking,” said a case officer at the Philippine Embassy.
“The six others do not want to go home because they are working.
Someone fetches them from their villa in the morning and brings them back in the evening.”
The officer said he suspected the person in charge of the maids has told the six maids who do not want to return home that if the embassy comes to rescue the maid they might also be taken in.
“This is something the six others don't like because they are working to earn,” he said.
“They don't want to go home yet.
That's also the reason why they asked Leonora (the pseudonym for the maid who wants to be rescued) to leave their accommodation.”
The officer pointed out that there are labor recruiting agencies that are accredited by the Saudi government but not by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO).
Only POLO-accredited agencies can be directly ordered to assist maids in their care.
“The embassy does not have any control over agencies (not accredited by POLO),” said the officer.

Source: Arab News - January 13, 2011

******

Philippines Embassy narrowed its search for distress Leonora.

A text message was sent to them indicating the location of the villa, about two kilometers from Majmaa in Riyadh, about 250 km from Riyadh. 

The Pakistani men who looked after them did not allow her to venture out alone. 

Leonora was also scared to leave the villa and walk toward the city because she did not have an iqama or passport.

She claimed that she was asked by the six other runaway maids to leave the villa.

They were afraid that the embassy would also take them if and when the embassy rescues Leonora.

They did not want to go back to Philippines yet as they still want to continue working to earn.

****** ****** ******  

Another Run-Away Maid Seeks Embassy Help

RIYADH: A second maid of seven being housed illegally by a Pakistani man to be outsourced in the black labor market near Majmaa, Riyadh province, says she would like to return home.
“We are trying to locate the exact location of the villa where Ofie (not her real name), Leonora (not her real name) and five other maids are staying,” Philippine Embassy Charge dAffaires Ezzedin H. Tago told Arab News on Thursday.
The exact location of the villa where the women are illegally residing is unknown.
The house is believed to be located within two kilometers from Majmaa.
Leonora, who claims she was raped by her sponsor and later fled after he placement agency didnt respond to her complaint, has been trying to seek help from the Philippine Embassy to return home.
Meanwhile, the other six women residing at the villa have been urging Leonora to leave because they dont want to be discovered and deported.
Now one of those six women has reportedly come out saying she would also like to be repatriated.
Tago said that if and when the exact location of the villa can be ascertained, the embassy would rescue Ofie and Leonora in coordination with the local police.
The women do not have a clear idea of their precise location.
Talking to Arab News by phone Ofie said that she was working as a house cook and escaped from employer on Aug. 10.
“Before I went on vacation last year, my employer, a doctor working at the Security Forces Hospital, promised to increase my monthly salary from SR1,000 to SR1,200,” she said.
“But when I came back, his wife, who is a teacher, was giving me the same salary of SR1,000 she told me not to tell her husband about it.”
She added that the situation became worse when her employer hired another domestic worker, an Eritrean, with a salary of SR1,500.
“The Eritrean started giving orders to me and when I did not follow her she complained to the employers wife, saying that I did not want to work,” Ofie said.
Ofie said that she was being asked to work outside the kitchen.
“I told her that I had been hired mainly to cook food and do nothing else.
Besides, I wake up at 5 a.m. and she at 11 a.m.
She should have been be doing the things was asking me to do,” she said.
The circumstances took a turn for the worse when the Eritrean complained about Ofies work, angering the wife.
Ofie said she then contacted a Filipino beautician (who has since returned to the Philippines) and they agreed to leave their employers.
“Through another contact, we were able to reach the villa where were staying now.
Its also here where I met Leonora and the other maids who dont want to go home yet because they still want to work,” she said.
She said that she did not have money but if the embassy could bear the costs of her repatriation, shed like to go back to the Philippines to rejoin her family in Ifugao province north of Manila.
Ofie and her husband have three children.
The women work illegally and are being managed by a Pakistani man who could face jail time for housing and contracting workers who have fled their sponsors and now have illegal status in the Kingdom.

Source: A1 Saudi Arabia - January 21, 2011

****** 

In the mean time, Leonora ventured out with an Indian woman and a Pakistani driver named Arshad.

They left the villa in Majmaa. 

Arshad was supposed to drop her at Diriyah, at a supermarket along Exit 10 in Riyadh. 

From there, she would call the embassy requesting someone to pick and brought her to Bahay Kalinga, BK, a temporary shelter for runaway maids run by members of the Filipino community. 

But the last call she made to the embassy  was to inform of being taken to the police station.

Embassy officials would seek the help of local authorities in Riyadh and Majmaa to find the Indian woman and Arshad, who might be involved in human trafficking.

******

Case Officer To Visit Filipino Maids In Prison

RIYADH: A Philippine Embassy case officer will visit a womens prison in Riyadhs Malaz district on Wednesday to talk to two Filipino maids arrested on suspicion of being runaways.
He will hope to speak to Leonora and Ofie (not their real names) regarding the circumstances surrounding their arrest by the police.
“The embassy has requested for a permit to visit Nisa prison in Malaz district so that I can talk to the two runaway maids whom the police arrested,” the officer handling the two maids case told Arab News on Monday.
The case officer made the statement after police called the embassy to say that they could not get any information from Leonora and Ofie regarding their case.
They had run away from their sponsors in Riyadh to Majmaa, but then decided to return to the capital.
The following day, the two maids were arrested by the police in a villa in Diriya with three Indian nationals.
“The police said that after giving few personal details such as their names, Leonora and Ofie clammed up when asked about their sponsors.
Its probable that they are trying not to unnecessarily incriminate others who might be involved in their case,” the case officer said. Leonora had given her name as Kristine Ali Noor.
“Much has been known about Leonora, whose case had also been reported by other newspapers catering for overseas Filipinos, but not Ofie.
Unlike Leonora, we dont even know her real name, which part of the country she comes from, if she has a family or not, and details of the Philippine agency that processed her papers for deployment to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
One newspaper published from Bahrain carried a story on Leonora, giving her name as Leonor.
Earlier, Leonora told Arab News that she arrived in the Kingdom in the middle of 2010 to work as a caregiver, but ended up working as a maid.
When she complained, her employers wife took her to the local agency that deployed her.
The agency placed her with another employer who allegedly raped her.
“Because of the incident, I escaped and went to the agency, which did nothing regarding my complaint,” she said.
The agency eventually looked for another employer, but as things were getting worse for Leonora, she escaped.
She and Ofie were helped by a Filipino woman to go to Majma.
Their helper has since gone back to the Philippines.

Source: A1 Saudi Arabia - February 15, 2011

****** 

Stranded Filipino Maids To Be Repatriated  
By RODOLFO ESTIMO JR. 

RIYADH: The Philippine Embassy announced on Monday that two Filipino housemaids caught with three Indian nationals in a villa in Diriyah in February would soon be repatriated to the Philippines.

Leonora and Ofie (not their real names) are still being held at a women’s jail in the Malaz district in Riyadh.
“Leonora’s documents are now being prepared.
Then it will be sent to the governor’s office for approval.
After that, a plane ticket will be issued,” an embassy official told Arab News on Monday.
He added that Ofie’s travel documents had been processed earlier and a plane ticket would also be issued to her.
“A plane ticket is normally issued by the Saudi government.
Otherwise, the embassy will provide it,” he added.
He also said that Leonora, who was imprisoned in February, had been sentenced to four months in prison and 70 lashes.
Her prison term ends next week.
He added that Ofie’s travel documents had been issued earlier because she did not receive a custodial sentence.
“Maybe it was because she was able to convince police authorities that she was merely a victim and not doing anything wrong,” the official said, adding that Leonora was unhappy that she had been jailed instead.
In February, Arab News reported that Leonora and Ofie went missing after leaving their villa in Majma, some 250 km north of Riyadh.
They were already in Diriyah when Leonora allegedly called the embassy to say that they had been arrested by the police.
“It was not true that the police stopped them,” the embassy official said.
“The truth is, it was only Leonora who was dropped by a Pakistani driver in Diriyah.
Ofie, who was romantically linked with one of the three Indians, had earlier left Majma for Diriyah in Riyadh,” he said.
He added that it was obvious Leonora had asked the driver to drop her in Diriyah as per an earlier arrangement with Ofie.
The embassy official added that early one morning police caught them with the three Indians.
Ofie was reportedly drunk and shouting.
“The neighbors probably called and complained to the police.
The police responded and found out that Leonora, who gave her Muslim name as Kristine Ali Noor, and Ofie were with the three Indians,” he said.
Leonora had earlier told Arab News that she asked the driver to drop her in front of a supermarket.
The driver was also reportedly having an affair with one of five other Filipino runaway maids in Majma.
From the supermarket, she was supposed to call the embassy and ask officials to pick her up and take her to the Bahay Kalinga (BK), a government shelter where stranded Filipino women stay while awaiting repatriation to the Philippines.
Leonora, who had been separated from her husband before she left the Philippines for Saudi Arabia, comes from Baguio City north of Manila.
She has three kids who are being looked after by her mother.
Before coming to Saudi Arabia, she had worked in a gasoline station and a restaurant in Baguio City. Ofie, on the other hand, is from Ifugao.

Source: Arab News - May 3, 2011

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (10)

Runaway Maids Eating Into Family Budgets  
By RIMA AL-MUKHTAR 

JEDDAH: There are many reports of housemaids being abused or beaten, and occasionally even murdered. However, there is another side to the story.
The large number of housemaids running away from their employers is causing untold problems, including social embarrassments and additional financial burdens for many Saudi families.
“It costs a lot to recruit a housemaid, with fees that go up to SR15,000. This includes recruitment fees, plane ticket and visa,” said Abu Faisal, a recruitment office manager in Jeddah. “If the maid runs away, the employer loses all the money he spent hiring her.”
Maids run away for several reasons, but they are mostly greedy and search for jobs in other households to make more money, according to Abu Faisal.
“Many maids run away from their sponsors as soon as they land in the Kingdom, knowing that they will find a job no matter what, for people are always looking for maids,” he said.
“They know this and plan to run away before even arriving here. Sometimes they arrange it with their friends to guarantee them a better salary,” he added.
“They just need someone to recruit them and pay for their visa and ticket, and once they are here they start looking for jobs with better wages,” said Abu Faisal.
Runaway maids accuse their previous employers of abuse and mistreatment. “My Indonesian maid once told me that her friend was looking for work. I asked her to bring her by so that I could hire her to work for me. Once she came I asked about her previous job and why she left, and that’s when she said that her sponsor used to deprive her of food and did not pay her for her work,” said Moneera Al-Qahtani, housewife and mother.
“When she told me the name of her sponsor I knew she was lying, because it turned out to be my cousin, and later I found out that she worked for him for only two days before she ran away,” Al-Qahtani added.
Frustrated employers are no longer recruiting from outside the Kingdom, but look for help from within.  “I will no longer pay so much money, knowing that my maid might run away and cost me even more. For years now I have been asking my friends and family to bring me maids. I don’t care if they are illegal or don’t have iqama, I only care that my house is clean and my maid does not cost me more than SR1,000 a month,” said Nahed Ibraheem, a working woman.
“I have bad experiences with maids running away even if they are treated like my own daughters. I don’t know why they have the urge to leave suddenly, even when I tell them that I would never hold them if they wanted to go. They just have to tell me in advance so I can arrange for another one,” she added.
At least some employers see maids as a threat to their safety and private life.
“Everyone in the Kingdom looks at us as if we are spoiled and vulgar, for they think our maids are running away because we abuse them and do not provide them with food. They don’t want to admit that we are the people who are suffering, because we are letting complete strangers inside our houses to look into our drawers,” said Kholoud Badr, a high school teacher.
“After years I found out that my maid was a part time prostitute, offering her services to drivers in our neighborhood. This freaked me out because I have two young daughters, and it’s not safe for them to stay at home alone. My question is this: How can you make sure that your maid is not a psychopath or a murderer? We don’t think about these things; we only care about the service,” she added.
Police only arrest maids who are accused of a crime, not runaways, said First Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq, spokesman for Jeddah police.
“According to the regulations, policemen are not allowed to get involved in the search of maids who run away from their sponsors. We only interfere when the employer accuses his maid of robbery or any criminal act,” he said. “We then liaise with the Passport Department to join forces and search for the suspect.”
All attempts to get a response from the Passport Department failed.

Source: Arab News - April 22, 2011

******

Some maids run away because they miss their children after minding their employers' kids.

Not to deter runaway maids, personal bond among employers and employees need to to be cultivated.

It was said that no less than 50 housemaids abandon their Saudi employers every month.

Some maids, coming from remote places, were not train to work, thus were unable to operate electrical appliances.

They are unable to perform basic jobs like handling electrical appliances and so make mistakes, something that angers their employers resulting in beatings and torture.

The housemaids then either run away or the sponsor tries to get rid of them.

Most of these women who are from the rural areas, they do not know how to use modern gadgets.

Breaking or mishandling them will be rewarded with scoldings and beatings by their employers.

More domestic workers are expected to run away from their employers before and after the month of Ramadhan.

The big workload during the Ramadhan season drives many of these maids to leave their employment.

Work period starts from dawn to past midnight until the following morning.

Although it is not only illegal, but also a violation of human rights, many Saudi families loan their housemaids and other household helps, to extended members of their families during Ramadan.

This is an encouraged reason for the runaway.

Those with great intention to run away during Ramadhan but was unable to, will do so after the season.

Some housemaids run away due to unpaid wages or delay in salaries.

Thus it adds up to losing situation that claims Saudi families lose more than SR500 million a year because of these domestic workers who run away.

Runaway maids had become a phenomenon.

But those maids who came to the country on maid visas specifically to elope with their suitors, led to much to much chagrin to their employers who had paid much money to process the paperwork to get the maid to the Kingdom.

A maid who had worked for four years in Saudi Arabia told Me of her friend who was enticed by a family driver to abandon her employer, only to have herself rape and kept by this driver, without the employer knew of her whereabout.

She was kept in an isolated place, with all contacts cutoff.

Lately, there are reports of Saudi police busting prostitution ring involving Asian housemaids who fled from their employers.

Some runaway maids were then recruited by agencies that are accredited by the Saudi government, and some others were outsourced into the black labour market.

Some were offered an alternative family, but were charged commission.

Both employers and employees were charged fees. 

Read On...

.

******

From Frying Pan To Fire Runaway Maids End Up In Harsher Conditions

JEDDAH: Housemaids who flee their sponsors due to bad working conditions to seek work in the black labor market often end up in a situation of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
In many cases they find themselves at the mercy of sleazy labor brokers who send them to work illegally in conditions that are little different from the legal situations, and often much worse. 
“They seize our IDs, lock us up in secluded rooms and make us live in very difficult conditions, which is no less than indentured servitude,” a maid told Arab News on condition she not be named.
Nuriyyah, an Indonesian maid who has been working for two years in Saudi Arabia, describes the situation she found herself in as “slavery” after being legally recruited and brought to the Kingdom. The wage she ended up receiving was not enough to feed her family back home.
“My sponsor often delayed my payment under the pretext that he had other pressing commitments,” she said. “I had no other choice but to flee.”
Nuriyyah said she lived in a small apartment after her escape with a large number of illegal housemaids who came for Haj or Umrah and overstayed their pilgrimage visas.  She said the man who ran the house essentially acted as an illegal-labor broker.
But what Nuriyyah discovered is that people who hire maids illegally often end up being worse than employers who seek workers through legal channels and at greater expense.  “The new employer and his wife used to beat and humiliate me all the time,” she said. “They also took my iqama. I served them for my food only.”
The maid says she has never been paid for her work. Eventually she fled her illegal employers. She ended up under the Sitteen Bridge, a congregation point for foreign laborers who have fled their sponsors in the hope they will be picked up by the police and deported.
Another Indonesian maid, who did not want to be named, said though she had been an adventurer all her life and would work hard to earn money, she had fears that she might fall victim to inhuman practices on the hands of her new employers.
“I now live in a small house with a large number of illegal African and Asian housemaids,” she said. “The brokers who distribute us among their customers do not care much for what will happen to us. They are only after money.”
She added that she was living in very difficult conditions in this house but her need for money would force her to continue.
The unidentified Indonesian housemaid said she witnessed her co-workers being beaten by merciless employers who know that illegal domestic servants are essentially hostages with few choices.
“Many housemaids had similar experiences but were finally able to make some money and go back home. In order to succeed, you have to take chances,” she said.
Commenting on the issue, spokesman for Jeddah police Col. Misfer Al-Juaid said many of the houses that accommodate runaway maids are found in the districts of Al-Bawadi, Ghulail and Kandara.
“We carry out weekly raids on such houses after identifying them,” he said. “We arrest the illegal residents, take their fingerprints before handing them over to the Passport Department for deportation.”
After these workers end up in the custody of Saudi immigration authorities, a long process for exit clearance takes place. Often these workers have no ID because their passports are with the employers from whom they fled. Saudi authorities must work with foreign missions to establish identities and check for criminal backgrounds before they can be sent home. 
Al-Juaid pointed out that an illegal worker can be exposed to more abuse than legal workers, because sponsors are aware that there is little recourse for reporting or challenging abusive situations. “The illegal housemaids bear all these inhuman treatment in order not to be caught by the passport police and sent back home,” he added.
The most common form of maid abuse is not paying salaries, followed by physical and sexual abuse. The Saudi authorities do not offer statistics of the number of abuse cases reported to them, but the problem is acute enough that labor rights activists and foreign missions – especially of Indonesia and the Philippines – maintain shelters for fleeing maids, especially women.
Supervisor of the National Society for Human Rights in Makkah province Hussain Al-Sharif described violence against housemaids as inhuman and un-Islamic.
“Just because they are paying them money, some employers will come to believe that they literally own their housemaids and they have the right to ask them to do anything,” he said.
Al-Sharif agreed with Al-Juaid, saying that illegal workers face a greater chance of being abused with impunity.
“Violence against housemaids, whether they are legal or illegal stayers, is inhuman and totally against Islam,” he added. “We completely reject such practices and deplore exploitation of any human being.”
Al-Sharif asked all employers to consider the pressing conditions that drove the housemaids to come all they way from their countries in the first place. The main reason is remittances, the money they can save up to send home to feed their children or other family members. Not paying a maid could mean a child back home goes without food, clothing or medicines.

Source: A1 Saudi Arabia - January 12, 2011

The Maid - Tears Welling Up In Their Eyes

Family Enjoys Meal In Cafe, But Tells Maid To Stand At One Side

There were still seats available in the cafe, but a family apparently did not allow their maid to sit with them. Instead, she stood in a corner, said STOMPer benji.

The STOMPer tells us more (Apr 16):

"I spotted this family at Marina Square, in the cafe Bao Today.

"They apparently asked the maid to stand at one side.

"Maid abuse?

"Initially I noticed a figure standing behind me after the family came in.

"The family noticed that I took pictures of them, so they asked her to sit down. But she was still left at the corner.

"I approached her to offer her a drink but she just shook her head. Tears were welling up in her eyes.

"She said she was part of that family.

"She looked like she was quite new.

"The family finished their food and left, but their maid did not eat a single bite."



Source: Singapore Seen. Stomp - April 16, 2011
 

****** ****** ******

After a month Nora* came into the family, she was paid only S$20 for her salary.

Her salary will still be S$20 for the next two months.
(She had worked 4 months for a previous family which I had blogged earlier).

After the seventh month, it will be S$400 or S$450?.
I need to check with My Brother.

******

Prior to working in Singapore, Nora was in Saudi Arabia, working for a family staying in Abha, Madinah for four years.
If the family did not intend to move to their 3-storey house, she would have stayed back.

Although she did not like the chilly Madinah weather (she said to take lots of paracetamol over there - constant headache due to cold), working for the family was easy.
Just needed to be around the four children when both parents were in school.
She just needed to be home all the time.

The family treated her with kindness.
She was part of the family too.
Her employer bought her, his four children's minder, the same thing whenever he bought his wife, the children's mother, gifts.

The husband did the marketing, and cooking was easy too.
Lots of salads and marinating mutton before meals.

She is lucky, she said.
The family she was with, had rice daily, unlike the family staying one floor below, they had bread for meals.
She pity her friend from Lombok, who worked there.
Being Indonesians, they live on rice.
So, her friend was getting skinnier as time passed by, as she had rice sparingly, although she had free access to food all her time.

******

Nora did not intend to leave home if things turned out as planned.

But that's GOD Will. 

With the 5.5 million rupiah the employer helped to sent home every three months from Saudi Arabia for 4 years, her mother bought a piece of land for them to start chilli plantation.

But weather had been erratic all over the world.

When the chilli plants started flowering, rain started to fall, never seem to end.

June is not a rainy season.

But it was, last year.

The soaked-in-rainwater chilli plants bore no chillies.

The investment had failed.

Her three children need money to go to school.

Her aged mother, in her 60s, resorted to selling other farmers' vegetables, on commission basis.

Meanwhile, her bedridden father, due to motorcycle accident, left to fend for himself.

There was absolutely no money to send him for therapy. 

During Ramadhan, when others were preparing for Eidul Fitr, Nora prepared to leave her children, yet again.

During Eidul Fitr, when families visit others, she was in Batam, all-ready to come to Singapore, but not until two months later...

******

Nora followed Me to City Plaza last week.

Tears were welling up in her eyes when I mentioned to her, I had some 'zakat' for her to send home.
More tears were welling up in her eyes, as she topped up another S$50, her salary and gifts from others, for the money to be sent home.

It is not 5.5 million rupiah she used to send home from Saudi Arabia, not even one million rupiah.

But it is the first sent home money from Singapore, seven months after she left Surabaya, Indonesia...       

The Maid - Squeezing Dry The Employers (2)

Distressed Bosses Want Laws To Protect Their Interests

PETALING JAYA: Distressed employers are seeking protection against fraudulent agencies and runaway maids.
Having lost large amounts of money to agencies that draw up lopsided contracts, the employers are hoping new regulations will be put in place to safeguard their interests.
An employer who only wanted to be known as Alan, 39, said he paid an agency RM11,500 for an Indonesian maid.
“We got a complete lunatic who carried a knife around with her,” he said, adding that the maid stole money, jewellery and his children’s clothes to send to her own family.
“She threatened us with the knife when we confronted her,” he said, adding that the agency refused to give him a refund when he sent her back.
College lecturer S. Kumaran, 40, from Klang, lost RM6,000 in downpayment to a maid agency after their Sri Lankan maid left after just three months.
“She worked for exactly three months before suddenly claiming that her daughter was sick and that she had to go back to her country immediately,” he said.
Junaidah Ramadan, 52, said an agency collected RM7,000 from her before sending her a maid with a health problem.
“She could hardly walk, let alone do much work as she would experience severe pains in her joints,” Junaidah said, She added that the maid would often sit around and cry.
“The agency insisted that we pay half the original amount for a new maid, knowing that if we went to another agency, we would have to come up with another RM7,000,” she said.
An employer called Aileen lost her RM9,000 downpayment when her maid ran away after four months.
“The agencies make up their own rules that work to their benefit,” she said.
Bar Council chairman Ragunath Kesavan urged employers to lodge a complaint with the Human Resource Ministry or the Consumer Claims Tribunal if they suspected foul play by maid agencies.
Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Alwi Bavutty said maid agencies would be blacklisted if they would not provide a replacement if a maid ran away within the first three months.

****** 

Desperate Employers Paying High Prices For Temporary Maids 
Stories by MUGUTAN VANAR, P. ARUNA and REENA NATHAN

PETALING JAYA: Maid agencies are cashing in on the shortage of domestic helpers in the country by charging desperate employers up to RM1,500 monthly for temporary maids.
The employers are paying a high price for these “temps,” who are hired for a few months before being “rotated” by the agency to other households.
With people willing to pay up to RM1,500 per month for such a temp, it is estimated that agencies are raking in up to RM18,000 each year for every maid under them.
Under the temp system, which is illegal, the employers will fork out the payment to the agencies, who would then pay the maids low wages and pocket the rest.
To fulfil the supply of maids as temps and due to the continued freeze by the Indonesian government, it is believed that the agencies are “recycling” those who have run away from their employers.
The growing practice was exposed by employers, who confessed to having paid large sums of money for these temps.
An employer from Kuala Lumpur, who declined to be named, said he was paying a registered agency RM1,500 per month for a temporary Cambodian maid.
“The agency told us she was a ‘rejected’ maid and we agreed to take her on because we were desperate for help and she was available immediately,” he said.
He said when the agency first informed them of the availability of a temp, his wife went to pick her up only to be told that she had already been hired to another household.
“We were told to come back after two days as these temps were in high demand,” he said.
Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Alwi Bavutty said it had received several reports of agencies supplying such temps and had sent letters demanding for an explanation.
“It is illegal and we will take action against any agency providing such services,” he said.
Alwi said maids were brought into the country only to work for specific employers and that the transfer of a maid to another employer could only be carried out once with approval from the Immigration Department and the first employer.
“If the second employer returns the maid to the agency, she has to be sent back to her country immediately,” he said, adding that there were many unregistered agencies getting maids through illegal means and offering them as temps.
Employers are also caught in the dilemma because the illegality of the temp system and the lack of documentation from the agencies mean that they cannot even file an official complaint if they are dissatisfied with the work.

Both Sources: The Star - Sunday, January 16, 2011

******

Indonesian maid was hired by Ms Wee five months ago.

Deposit of RM5,000 was paid, with a promise that processing will be 2 to 3 months.

If not, Ms Wee has the right to cancel the contract with full refund.

Exactly three months later, the salesperson of the maid agency which Ms Wee approached, called to inform that the maid is not coming to Malaysia.

Since the promised time frame had elapse, Ms Wee requested for a temporary helper but was turned down by the agency.

She was asked to choose a new biodata of her another choosen maid.

A month later, there was no news from the agency.

So, Ms Wee called to ask the latest development of the date when the chosen maid supposed to arrive, or she insisted on being provided with a temporary helper.

The salesperson assured her the temporary helper is ready for her.

Two days later, when she appeared at the maid agency's office to take home the helper, she had a shock of her life.

She was to pay an additional RM6,500.

Frustrated, she asked for the full refund promised to her.

She was sent an email. 

Refund was RM1,000 less minus miscellaneous expenses...

******

Eve engaged a maid agency a year ago, as her then existing maid wanted to go back to Indonesia. 

She was promised of a new maid within 3 months after payment was made.

A trusting person, she believed what was promised by the agency.

Taking their words, she terminated the existing Maid’s visa on the promised month when the new maid is supposed to arrive.

She bought a flight ticket home for her existing maid too.

A month lapse, there was no sight of the new maid.

The exisitng maid is ready to fly home.

She went to the immigration, did not mind the penalty, and pleaded the immigration officer to renew the existing maid’s visa.

The maid agency once again promised Eve her new maid will be arriving in another month's time.

Again, she terminated her maid's visa and again, purchased air ticket for the second time for her maid to return home. 

The whole promised month, for thirty days, Eve waited for the new maid. 

Once again, she was no where in sight. 

The immigration refuse to renew the visa of her existing maid the second time. 

Since the promised maid did not appear, Eve was provided with a temporary maid. 

That was when her house was robbed. 

The maid who was sleeping in her room downstairs, did not hear any commotion when the house was entered into. 

Eve felt cheated, send back the temporary maid, and asked for the return of her deposit. 

They took another 4 months to return the money, minus the temporary maid’s salary, which is double the permanent maid...

******

NO-SHOW HOUSEMAID
Submitted by pekwan

Couple Upset Over Partial Refund For Fruitless Wait
NADIRAH H. RODZI Joseph Kaos Jr

AMRAN and his wife have had a torrid time dealing with an employment agency to apply for a domestic worker.
In September, the couple approached Agensi Pekerjaan Sri Nadin Sdn Bhd in Kuala Lumpur to get an Indonesian maid.
After paying a downpayment of RM2,450 to the agency, the couple was told that the application would be processed after the Hari Raya break, as its Indonesian counterpart would also be closed for the holiday.
A month later, in October, after not getting any news, AMRAN contacted the agency. He was shocked to learn that the agency had yet to receive any document from its Indonesian counterpart because the candidate for the job had not confirmed her impending employment.
Not wanting to wait any longer, AMRAN and wife agreed to select a different candidate. They were promised that the application would be processed, and the maid should arrive in Malaysia by December.
When there was no word from the agency, AMRAN gave them another call.
"Imagine my surprise when I was informed that the maid had not arrived and gave me the same reason as the first candidate, in that the agency had not received her documents from Indonesia.
"I felt that if the agency in Indonesia was ineffective, they should stop using its services, and they should have the courtesy to inform us, and not let us wait here anxiously."
Fed up of the fruitless long wait, AMRAN requested the agency to return the RM2,450-deposit to him.
He was shocked when the agency told him that RM300 would be deducted from the deposit as "administration fees".
AMRAN disagreed and demanded a full refund, but when he eventually received the cheque, the RM300 was still deducted from the full amount.
"The agency highlighted to me a clause in the agency and employer’s agreement that RM300 would be deducted from my deposit in the event that I decided not to proceed with the employment of the maid from their agency.
"I disagreed because no maid was provided to us to begin with. They didn’t fulfill the job that we trusted them to do. How can they charge me RM300 for this?"
AMRAN and his wife insist that they get back their RM300 from the agency.
● When contacted, an Agensi Pekerjaan Sri Nadin manager reiterates the reason for AMRAN not getting his RM300 back.
"It is mentioned in Clause 4.4 (a) that a sum of RM300 shall be forfeited from the Agency Fee after the execution of the agreement, in the event that the employer decides not to proceed with the employment of the maid.
"The term 'agreement' here means that the employer agrees to appoint the agency's services to find the client a maid. The client had to sign this agreement first before paying the deposit.
"We trust that the client is able to understand the clauses in the agreement.
"The client also cannot say that we didn’t fulfill our job because there was, indeed, work being done to get the maid."
The manager says the client offered a RM550 monthly salary for the maids. "So we believe that this was the reason why the two maids in Indonesia decided not to take up the offer. The normal salary range for Indonesian maids is RM600.
"Since the client decided to stop using our services, we had to return the deposit, but as explained in the agreement, the RM300 had to be deducted." 

Source: Malay Mail - Thursday, December 24th, 2009

The Maid - Squeezing Dry The Employers

'Recycled' Maid Wreak Havoc
KELANA JAYA: Foreign Maid Scam

MY Indonesian maid went missing after just two weeks, so did the agent, leaving my household in a total mess.
I pursued the matter and discovered that the whole thing was staged to ‘rob’ me of RM8,000 in fees for the maid.
Now, I cannot trace the agent and am resigned to not getting my money back. I am afraid to deal with another agent although I am in desperate need of a maid.
My problems began early January when a friend introduced me to a foreign labour agent and I immediately engaged him to get me a maid.
I paid RM4,000 in advance and the balance was to be paid as soon as the maid started work. In mid-February, the agent brought a young Indonesian lady to my home, much to the disappointment of my wife when she learnt the maid had no experience looking after children.
In fact, she had no experience doing any household chores and my three children were always left to fend for themselves. I complained to the agent and he came one morning and took her away, saying she had accused my wife of ill-treating her.
He said the maid needed ‘counselling’ and that a replacement would be made available in a week.
The replacement maid never arrived and that was the last I saw the agent against whom I made a police report
later.
I had no choice but to get another maid, but this time I went to a recognised foreign labour recruitment agency.
That was when I learned about certain agencies that provide maids who run away after working for short periods.
These maids cook up stories that they have been abused and ill-treated and these tales are then used by the agent to take the maid away with the promise of a replacement.
The runaway maid would be sent to another family, only to repeat the cycle. In many cases the rogue agents only reimbursed a partial sum to the affected families.
The National Consumer Complaints Centre confirmed the ‘recycling’ tactics when I lodged a report there as well.
I was told the centre received close to 1,400 complaints last year, compared with the 750 complaints in 2009.
This is a problem that is getting out of hand and I believe there could be more cases.
I would like to advise those in need of maids to be wary of falling into this trap.
Ramli MB.  

Source: Malay Mail - Thursday, April 14, 2011

*****

'Troublemaker' Maids In Cahoots With Agencies

PUTRAJAYA: Several foreign maid agencies are believed to have scammed their customers out of RM8.1 million last year by giving them "troublemaker" maids, who ran away after working for just a few months. National Consumer Complaints Centre senior manager M. Matheevani said these agencies practised a "recycling" tactic by ensuring that maids, who were hired out after potential employers placed a deposit of between RM8,000 and RM10,000, created problems before running back to the agency.

These hapless employers would be forced to fork out more money to get another maid, as their deposits could not be refunded.

Even in cases where clients were reimbursed, they would only get a partial sum.
Meanwhile, the runaway maid would be sent to another family, only to repeat the cycle.

"We received many complaints from employers who claimed they were cheated by the agencies and lost thousands of ringgit just to hire a maid.

"It is a serious problem and these are only cases which are reported. There could be more," she told the New Straits Times.

Last year, the centre received 1,363 complaints, almost double of the 746 complaints in 2009.

Matheevani said there were also cases where the maids could not do any housework, although the employers were promised qualified and experienced workers.

There were also instances when documents, such as permits and health checks, were incomplete despite employers having paid a hefty price for the maids.

"We had one complainant, who paid RM10,000 for a maid who did not have a permit and had not undergone a health check."

She said if there were others who had faced similar problems, they should lodge a complaint with the with the centre to prevent future employers from falling into the trap.

Source: New Straits Times - April 11, 2011

******

Indah* had been working for Kay's* family in KL for slighty more than a year.

Although Indah did not honour her two-year contract, Kay allowed her to return to Indonesia on humanitarian basis.

Indah was returned to the maid agency.

All together, Kay handed the agency RM6,000 together with Indah's salary and air ticket.

Three weeks later, Kay received an SMS from Indah.

She was still in Malaysia.

The maid agency said Indah had to finish her two-year contract.

So, she was sent to work for an unsuspecting family for a period of six months.

Kay demanded the maid be returned to her immediately, but the agency claimed Indah's new employer refused to release her.

Kay then demanded the agency to return all monies (Indah's salary and air ticket) that she had paid to the agency, as she wanted to personally send Indah back to Indonesia.

Kay was later informed that the salary had been banked into a maid representative account.

Indah will receive her salary due to her, upon her arrival in Indonesia.

When Kay demanded to see the air ticket that the agency supposed to buy for Indah three weeks ago, it was only that very day the ticket had only been purchased...

******

After paying RM8,500, an Indonesian maid was sent to Shah*'s family the next day.

But a month later, she ran away.

The request for a replacement was ignored even after two months.

*** Both are real incidences that happened last year. 

******

Maid Flee Employer's Home With Valuables Worth RM450,000
Submitted by Najiah

KOTA BARU: A man incurred almost half a million ringgit in losses when his Indonesian maid absconded with valuables and collectibles from his house four days ago.
Kelantan deputy police chief SAC Mazlan Lazim said based on reports, the suspect, a 34-year-old Indonesian woman known as Neglis, escaped when her employer was not at home.
"According to reports, the victim, Foo Kiat Chai realised his maid was missing when he returned home at 6pm on Jan 28.
"The employer went into the maid's room and suspected something amiss when he noticed it was empty and the woman's clothes and belongings were gone," he told reporters here today.
He said Foo was shocked to find valuables, collectibles and heirlooms stored in a room, worth an estimated RM450,000, missing.
"Police have launched a manhunt for the suspect who hails from Bandung and holds a passport (AP 168246). We urge anyone with information to contact us to facilitate investigations," he added.

Source: Malay Mail - Wednesday, Februaury 2, 2011

(to be continued)

The Maid - Excessive Baggage + + (2)

No less than RM8,000 is the amount that employer needs to pay to have a maid.
It is then deducted through the maid's salaries for six months.

M.S. wrote, "Maybe, we should be more humanitarian, and pay her something from the first month, perhaps not the full salary, but a decent amount for her to send back home. Her family will be happy and so will she."
??????

M.S. wrote, "Sometimes, the maid will still want to leave anyway.

Then let her go.

But, with a good employer, the maid will not run away unless she is a psychotic.

She asked, "Will a maid run away if she is happy in a home, if she feels she is trusted, if she is given more than what she has contracted to do?"

That is the secret.

But if you are an employer who wants his or her pound of flesh, then be prepared for your maid to flee."

******

A reader, in response to a Malay Mail article written by Muzli Md Zin on January 18, 2011 - "I Don't Care: It's A Maid Problem" wrote,

BRAVO!!! Exactly the problem I am facing. After my last maid who worked for me for 4years took 1 month break to visit her "sick" mother with 4yrs salaries in CASH (she insisted CASH) in late Nov 10 and never returned. she did not even leave the country. i sent her to KLIA, checked her in, got passed Immigration (mind u, I saw she passed with my own eyes and later I have a immigration print out record!!) she did not board the flight (because Airlines called to scream at me for my maid was not there to board and they were delayed) How immigration left her out AFTER they stamped her passport of leaving Malaysia is still a mystery to this day!!! So here comes the serious of run around gave me by authorities (police, Immigration & airport security) finally I have to pay FINE to cancelled her permit!!!! I applied for new maid.. Guess what I cannot afford to pay AGENCY FEE “RM 8500.00” which does not grantee a good maid as if the run away or not suitable I still have to pay another RM1980.00 + immigration FINE RM250. oh by the way, I treated my last maid like my own sister!!! And we do not know any “Pak Latif”, so I am between work and caring of my children… and very clearly nearing to loose my JOB!! who cares about middle class like us :-(

******

There are a small number of foreign maids who run away because of abusive employers.
These maids generally seek assistance from either the Indonesian embassy or non-governmental organisations.
These maids should be warn of implications when trying to run away.
There are bound to be difference working in a different country with different culture.
They have to be open minded about it.
It is usually the culture, language, stress and human factor - fussy employers which cause maids to run away.
Adaptation and accustomisation, on some maids are quick,while others, may take a longer time to do so.

Although only a handful of these maids would eventually run away, most of the time,they did so due to external factors - unable to cope with workload or  their employers, or just being unable to adjust themselves living in a new environment.

******

Then there are those runaways influenced by third party.
Maids sometimes mingled with outsiders and fellow nationals who influenced them to run away with promises of easier and better-paying jobs.
Some find boyfriends, thus can be influenced to leave her job and enjoy an easier life with him.
Scores of foreign maids run away annually and in many instances take along their employer's cash and valuables with them.

A maid of 9 years had ran off with cash and jewellery valued about RM10,000.

She managed to take her passport, which the employer locked away.

Despite being treated at all times as part of family members, she eloped with her newfound boyfriend who present her with a handphone.

The employer's standard one daughter's emotion was affected by her disappearance, as she was being cared for by her, since birth.

******

Children who have been brought up by maids still think fondly of their maids.
Runaway maids, not just financial losses the family suffered, but the children too, whom the maid looked after. They also suffered as there were emotional ties involved.
We can change our mindset, accepting their runaway, but not the kids.
Toddlers and small kids are innocent in trust and love they have, for their minders.

******

Runaway maids are major problems faced by employers.
These maids can reenter the country as individuals on social visit passes through various illegal entry points into the country.
Once they gain entry under different identities, they can easily find employment.
They can be rehired by other unsuspecting employers.

Meanwhile, their former employers, on the other hand, have to fork out another thousands RM again, to hire new maids after their earlier help runs away with valuables.

Last year alone, there were 314 reports of maids running away after stealing from their employers.
Another 418 maids ran away without taking anything.
These included maids who committed various crimes.

******

It is estimated that at least 50,000 households are in need of maids.
There are about 400,000 Indonesian maids working in Malaysia sending money to their families back home.

M.S. wrote: We have to learn to trust maids.

Treat them with respect and kindness in word, thought and deed.

A kind gesture goes a long way
.

But when the maid is an opportunist sort, kind gesture will be misunderstood, or be taken advantage of.

Some maids set their own rules, keep praising themselves, claiming others are not as good enough as them.
They can be big headed, turn rebellious, talk back and yell at employers, telling them what to do.
I've came across many such cases, especially when they know asking for another change of maids mean employers have to retrain new maids all over again.
Especially when they do not have much time in hands.
Employers will then  find ways to win the maids' hearts, to love their kids.
These maids can be spoilt too, unappreciative of kind gestures of all the good things in life, employers shower on them.
Employers will be punished for abusing their maids, but employers abused by their maids?
Lesson learnt.

******

Then there are cases of lazy maids who perform half-heartedly.
And there are those fresh school leavers, never touch any houseworks before.
They need to be taught even simple things as how to sweep and squeeze the mops
I've met many maids who are not poor back home, nor in great financial difficulties.
They become housemaids because of current trend in their home villages, where females become housemaids in foreign lands.
Upon their return, the neighbourhood 'will stood up' to their houses renovations and extensions. 

Watch out for those using your husbands' belongings.

It is all too familiar stories heard of they putting their used sanitary pad into soups, and water that they wash their legs used by their employers' families.

******

I've seen maids who demand to be sent home, crying uncontrollably, even when they understand that they are not allowed home before their two-years is up.
They cook up stories of fathers' very sick, mothers' dying, and grandparents sick too.
At the end of the day, when sympathetic employers sent them home for a week or two, with salaries paid, the maids themselves are usually sick too.
Unable to return!

******

Married maids when receiving news of their husbands run away with another women or marrying another wife, sure have their hearts dissppeared into thin air, followed by tremendous crying episodes.
Employers at these times, have to accept what-to-expect-next.

Or, married maids who extend their services, upon their return from their hometowns, several were known to be carrying babies.
They are usually good helpers, hence the extension.
Sign of relief by employers upon seeing them returning again at the airport will soon ache heads as they need to be send back home, unless employers do not mind if their maids do not have smooth pregnancy.
Again, there are great money involved again, especially when their permits have just been renewed.

******

Usually employers will buy their maids, especially when they are first time maids, new lingeries and toiletries to make them having the welcome home feeling.
But maids with attitude problems, even how matured and independent they maybe, will not return kindness with honesty.
They will not hesitate to stealing, even trivial things.

******

Employers And Foreign Maids To Be Told Their Rights

KUALA LUMPUR: Employers must soon attend a half-day course with their newly-employed foreign maids to learn about their rights and responsibilities to each other.

“The course is expected to start at the end of next month. The parties must participate in the course within six months from the time the maids enter the country,” said Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam.

Representatives of employment agencies would also join in the course, called the Seminar and Dialogue for Foreign Maids, as there had been complaints against the agencies as well.

The Manpower Department (JTK) will organise such courses nationwide.

“This is to show the world that Malaysia is playing a more positive role to improve on the employer-maid working relationship.

“Although 99% of households with foreign maids are coping well, the one per cent of problematic relationships is giving a wrong impression about the country,” said Dr Subramaniam after the launch of a guidebook on the employment of foreign maids at Socso building here yesterday

The Human Resources Ministry would get the list of new maids entering the country from the Immigration Department and use it to notify the parties supposed to attend the compulsory course.

In May last year, the Malaysian Employers Federation had appealed to the ministry to organise induction courses, as the foreign trainers conducting such courses in source countries might not be familiar with the local culture here.

Last November, there was also a proposal for government officers to conduct “friendly visits” to houses to enquire about the welfare of the foreign maids, but the suggestion was shot down as many felt it was an invasion into their privacy.

On the guidebook, Dr Subramaniam said it outlined the role and responsibilities of each party in the service contract; as well as hotline numbers, websites and addresses of related agencies such as the Immigration Department, JTK and police.

“The guidebook will be given to maids attending the course,” he added.

As for the on-going negotiations with the Indonesian parties wanting a RM800 monthly salary for maids, the minister said Malaysia had countered the proposal by urging for the salary scale to be determined by market forces.

He believed the two sides were keen to resolve outstanding issues the soonest possible.

Last June, Indonesia froze the dispatch of Indonesian maids to Malaysia, following reports of abuse by employers.

Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Tan Sri Da’i Bachtiar SH later said that Jakarta would demand higher wages in its negotiations to lift the freeze.

Meanwhile, the Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) deputy president Foo Yap Hooi agreed with the Government’s proposal to allow market forces dictate wages.

“Better trained maid will be able to command a higher salary. Employers must be sure they are agreeable to the salary stated in the contract.

“If they want to change the maid, they will need to do it within the time period given and pay for the exchange fee,” he said. 

Source: The Star - Februaury 22, 2010

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (5)

Up until October 29 last year, errant Saudi sponsors forced to cough up a total of SR3,717,635 million in unpaid salaries of 937 Indonesian housemaids.
Some of them had not been paid for 13 years.

Of the total, 617 housemaids returned to Indonesia, and 320 went back to their sponsors.
About 80 to 90% eventually get their wages back.
The remaining 10 to 15% are runaways who have worked for just 15 days to three months.

******

67-year old Sumiati Bint Mohammad Badri, from Cilacap in Central Java, worked for her sponsor in Mecca in 1993.
The sponsor used to say that her money was in the bank, but Sumiati was never paid for her service for nine years.

When the sponsor's family of 11 brothers split up, he sent her to work at his mother's house, where she spent seven years.
When the sponsor's mother died, her sons paid her SR50,400.

Sumiati went to the Indonesian consulate to get back the previous nine years wages that amounts to SR64,800.

******

In 2008 - 2010, there were 90 female migrant workers from Cilacap and 24 from Banyumas in Central Java who suffered various abuses.

Up to last year, there were 124 physical abuses.
More than 50 others, were abused sexually.

One of them is 35-year old Surti, from Pemijen in Sokaraja, Banyumas, Central Java, who managed to flee.
.

******

Kuswati from Kaliwedi, in Kebasen, Banyumas, Central Java, left for Saudi Arabia in October 18, 1992 with PT Duta Wibawa.

She wrote home in January 1993 to inform she worked for an employer in Al Baha.

Her elder brother, Muhtarom, replied the letter.
It was later returned, as the address he wrote, was unknown.
Communication was immediately stopped since then.

PT Duta Wibawa, the maid agency that flew his sister to the kingdom, was of not much help.

He then wrote a letter to the Indonesian Consulate in Jeddah last year, asking for assistance.
His now 38-years old younger sister, had disappeared for more than 18 year.

In a reply, the consulate claimed, there's no Indonesian housemaid known as Kuswati, working in the kingdom.

******

Ina, from Perwokerto, Banyumas in Central Java was back in her country, last Friday.
She was relieved when the aeroplane touched down at Soekarno-Hatta Airport at Tangerang, Banten.

She flew home, courtesy of the Indonesian government.

She had been living under the Kandara bridge in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for more than a year.
She was in Saudi Arabia since 2007 but chose to run away 18 months ago.

The son of Ina's employer often locked her in the bathroom.
She was denied of visit to hospital nor medication on her sick days.

The National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) had repatriated troubled migrant workers from Saudi Arabia.

The Indonesian government had allocated fund of Rp128 billion for its troubled citizens, after violating their residence permit.

The repatriations were conducted in  three stages of overstayers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The series started on Monday February 14, with the first repatriation of 301 Indonesian overstayer citizens, who lived under the Khandara Bridge in Jeddah, consisting of 234 women, 27 kids, and 40 infants.

The second, on Friday February 18, repatriating 335 Indonesian overstayers - 302 female, 15 children, and 19 infants, residing under the Khandara Bridge too.

There are no more Indonesian citizen lives under the Khandara Bridge, for now.

However, there are still overstayers in Jeddah who lives in tahril (shelter) at the immigration office.
They stay together with thousands of offenders from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

The tahril capacity, suitable for ten thousand people, was insufficient.
It  forced the Saudi Arabian government to add another shelter for them in the House of Madinatul Hujjaj, Jeddah, to accommodate tens of thousands offenders from various countries
. 
Yesterday, the last repatriation, managed to send home those migrant workers who have had problems with their jobs.

They were some 350 Indonesians - 286 female, 21 children and 43 infants.

Reality Bites

My Heart Beats Very Fast Upon Reading This In The Stars. 

Published: Saturday June 19, 2010 MYT 2:59:00 PM
Updated: Saturday June 19, 2010 MYT 3:04:08 PM 

Idris Jala sticks to his guns By MUGUNTAN VANAR

KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Idris Jala insists that Malaysia needs to start reducing subsidies or face the risk of bankruptcy.
The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department said that since 1998, Malaysia has been operating on a deficit budget, which has seen its debts increase.
He said the country's debt was growing around 12% annually and it would not be able sustain this based on the last decade's annual gross development growth of 4%.
"We have been borrowing to spend, it is increasing our deficit and debt, we cannot go on like this," Idris said at a talk with Parti Bersatu Sabah members on the 10th Malaysia Plan and other the government transformation programmes, here, Saturday.
"If you earn RM1,000 and spend RM1,200 a month, then you have borrow and if you go on (without an increase in salary), you are heading for bankruptcy as you won't be able to pay the debts," he explained.
Idris, however, said Malaysia's debt was still manageable but what was necessary was to reduce expenditure.
He said mechanisms had been worked out to assist the poorer groups if the subsidies were taken away.
Idris also said that Malaysia's 10% gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first half this year was a good sign for its planned economic transformation to a high-income country.

 ******

Too Good If Indeed It Is True. 

Tuesday June 1, 2010 

Too dramatic to say we’ll go broke, says economist

KUALA LUMPUR: To say that Malaysia will go bankrupt by 2019 if subsidies are not withdrawn is a “terribly dramatic and inappropriate way” to justify the end of subsidies, said an economist and Umno supreme council member.
Although phasing out subsidies is a pragmatic move, Datuk Dr Norraesah Mohamad said the country was on a solid footing owing to a good economic outlook, prudent financial management and tight monetary policies.
Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Idris Jala had recently said Malaysia would go bankrupt in 2019 if subsidies were not reduced across the board over five years.
Idris, also the chief executive officer of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), said the cuts were aimed at saving up to RM103bil to partially repay the nation’s huge debt and address fiscal deficit.
In assessing Malaysia’s economic position, Dr Norraesah said it was “ridiculous to subscribe to a formula” that Malaysia would be condemned to bankruptcy because:
> Malaysia’s economic outlook is positive, as two-digit growth was registered for the first quarter of this year;
> Malaysia’s budget situation will substantially improve over the next few years because the economy is growing;
> Malaysia’s very prudent financial management and tight monetary policies do not allow for dubious cross country swaps like what happened in Greece, further aggravating its debt situation;
> Malaysia is not caught in the euro capsule like Greece. “We have our own money and therefore can deal and manage our costs and prices”;
> Malaysia enjoys a high saving rate. The Employees’ Provident Fund has accumulated savings of RM360bil as at Dec 31, 2009;
> Malaysia’s abundant resources and diversified economy are reinforcing factors that guarantees the country will not plunge into bankruptcy.
Dr Norraesah agreed that phasing out subsidies was a “pragmatic move and a sound economic decision” that must be made because it ate into the national fiscal position, mis-allocate resources and distort more effective use of available development funds.
“Besides, the one-size-fits-all subsidy policy is not sustainable and socially unacceptable,” said the PhD (Economic Science) holder from University of Paris I, Phantheon-Sorbonne, France.
Greece, Dr Norraesah pointed out, had all sorts of problems that were not affecting Malaysia.
For example, while Greece’s budget deficit was an unacceptable 13.6% in 2009, the budget deficit for Malaysia had been brought down from 7% to 5.6 % in last year’s budget.

******

A Bomb-Shell Dropped.

Friday May 28, 2010 

Idris: RM103b can be saved, Government debt growing by 12% yearly 

TEH ENG HOCK and SHAUN HO enghock@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will save RM103bil over the next five years if it slashes its subsidy bill now.
On the other hand, the country would become bankrupt by 2019 if the Government debt continued to grow by 12% per year, warned Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala.
“If we do not do anything, by 2019, our debt will equal our GDP. We do not want to end up as another Greece,” he said at the Subsidy Rationalisation Open Day.

To the point:i Idris explaining the hard facts concerning subsidy cuts during the Subsidy Rationalistion Lab open day in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Idris labelled the move to cut subsidies as “the most unpopular decision the Government has made since Independence”.
“You may be angry today. You and I do not like this. Nobody will be dancing on the streets to celebrate this, but we must do it for our future generation.
“If we vote not to do this (cut subsidies), our children in later years will condemn us for not taking the right decision,” he said.
Idris, who is also Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) chief executive officer, said he was encouraged that 61% out of 191,592 respondents who took part in an SMS poll supported the subsidy reduction.
To another poll question, 66% said the reduction should be done over between three and five years, he said.
Recommendations from Pemandu’s subsidy rationalisation lab, where key players from the public sector, private sector and non-governmental organisations brainstormed over six weeks, were displayed at the open day.
Later, Idris told reporters that Pemandu would process the public feedback on the proposals before presenting its report to the Cabinet.