Sandeep Singh Grewal

Manama, Bahrain-Another year gone by without any concrete step taken to protect domestic worker in the Kingdom who continue to be exploited by their employers or recruitment agencies. The fate of thousands of foreign domestic workers hangs in the balance as they are not covered by the labour law of the country.

There are several pending cases of disputes which are yet to be settled by the civil courts. From rape to murder these workers who leave their homes to chase the dinar dreams are exposed to the harsh reality.

Marietta Dias, a noted migrant welfare worker said, “We keep hearing from officials they are working on the new law which would exclusively cover domestic workers. There are laws in place but are not implemented across the board.”

Citing a case of a Sri Lankan housemaid who was severely assaulted by her employer, Dias said the housemaid was labelled as “runaway” by her employer because she managed to go the Police station and lodge a complaint during her working hours.

“If these maids leave their work and complaint to the cops they are called runaways by their employers. So it’s strange that on one hand the authorities are urging people to come forward and complaint but the result is the victim is usually deported, “Dias who heads of the action committee of the Migrant Workers Welfare Society said.

The Society runs a temporary shelter for abused women and victims of human trafficking here and has repatriated over 350 maids since 2005. The media has reported cases of foreign housemaids who have been victims of human trafficking or are minors working in different Bahraini households.

The last survey in Bahrain done four years ago revealed that there were an estimated 50,000 foreign housemaids in the Kingdom. Most of them are from countries like India, Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia.

Human rights organisations and Asian diplomats on several occasions have raised the issue of protection of domestic workers with government officials, but the issue is not addressed. For example- simple cases involving non-payment of salaries end up to the police and justice ministry courts.

In a parliamentary session, the Bahrain Minister of Labour, Dr. Majeed Mohsen Al Alawi had said a new law for domestic workers would be soon implemented which would focus on their protection and settlement of their cases. The government is also pressing for a minimum wage and insurance coverage which is yet to be debated.

The new labour law which is still in parliament has no single article covering housemaids. They were removed from all clauses in newly implemented labour market reforms law to avoid imposing taxes on families for hiring maids and drivers.

The Bahrain government announced the general amnesty for illegal workers to legalise their situations from August 1- January 31 this year. According to official statistics a total of 12, 977 people left the country- of which 507 were housemaids.

International agencies like the International Labour Organisation have also marked the plight of the housemaids as a rather problematic agenda in the Kingdom’s labour front. The six member Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) states are mulling for a unifying set of rules applicable for all foreign housemaids working in any of these countries. A comprehensive study is being carried out by the Gulf governments to work in this process to clearly set working hours and holidays for domestic helpers.

There are an estimated 1.5 million foreign housemaids in the GCC, the biggest percentage of them are in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.