The plight of foreign domestic workers in Saudi Arabia

Thousands of  domestic workers plead to be sent back to their countries as they no longer can tolerate  the torture and slavery in that hellhole.

Ellen Knickmeyer writing in the WallStreetJournal:
....The tent city at the Philippine consulate is one of the most dramatic outgrowths of Saudi Arabia’s recent crackdown on what by some estimates are 2 million to 3 million foreign workers living in the kingdom without proper documentation.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to break the kingdom’s reliance on cheaper foreign labor and get more Saudis into the private sector, in what the Saudi government and most analysts say is a badly needed overhaul of the Saudi labor market.

 As part of that restructuring, the kingdom has given foreign workers who are working without the proper paperwork until July to sort out their working documents and visas, or face deportation.

Many workers went into hiding for days when the government first announced the crackdown, and some still fear they may be imprisoned in Saudi Arabia rather than immediately deported. The workers outside the Philippines consulate, however, mostly saw the Saudi deportation orders as an opportunity, rather than a threat.

Many workers in the tent city are seeking deportation after fleeing their employers due to abuse, said Marion Guinto, a resident in tent city helping to coordinate meals, medical care and hygiene for the camp. They say that their employers withheld wages, beat them, or subjected them to sexual abuse, Ms. Guinto added..........

.....The consulate has set up a phone bank to call the workers’ employers, pleading with them to sign the necessary paperwork for the workers to go back to the Philippines, Mr. Garibay said. The Saudi employers typically refuse, saying they want repayment first for the costs of bringing the workers to Saudi Arabia, the diplomat said.

The Philippines has asked the Saudi government for a paperwork waiver, as well as amnesty on the average $2,000 fine each runaway worker owes the Saudi government, Mr. Garibay said.

The Saudi foreign ministry has told the Philippine authorities that the government is studying the request, Mr. Garibay said, speaking over the wails and shrieks of the children now living in the consulate.

About 67,000 of the 655,000 Filipino workers here face similar paperwork problems, he said. So do unknown numbers more among the millions of Indian, Pakistani and other Asian and African workers here.........