Issue - Y-oman.com

ecruiting maids is little more than a formality. It was drafted by the Philippines governmentand thus a regulation that the Sultanate, like the rest of the GCC, is not tied to. Anotherformality in the process of recruitment for household workers is a ‘bill of rights’ that theemployer must read and attach to every contract. However, as the house maids are in noway entitled to view this document then the employees are usually unaware of their rights.Instead, it is left to the employer to inform their ‘hired hand’ of their civil liberties; which isobviously very rarely done. None of the girls I spoke to had seen the document.Although there are vast abuses of workers’ rights from agencies and employers in theSultanate, the real problem comes from an illegal practice of hiring workers from an agencyin the UAE before sending them on to Oman with tourist visas. These girls thus slip throughany veneers of protection they might be entitled to, and as such, they are often withoutlabour cards and are essentially confined to the house as illegal workers. With the girlsstaying in the country on expired tourist visas, they are reluctant to go to the police if theyare abused or mistreated by their employer. Amelito says, “99 percent of the girls here (atthe refuge) were recruited this way. We’ve frequently complained to the Ministry of ForeignAffairs to solve the problem but it is still continuing.” The agency in the UAE treats theemployees as cattle rather than human beings. When a contract expires between a housemaid and a UAE employee the worker is sold on to clients in Oman without going throughthe more vigorous process that agencies here in Oman are subject to. This process is“simply human trafficking and it happens frequently,” Amelito informs me. He adds, “Theyare treated as a commodity and the agency fools these girls to come over here and forcesthem to work.” The effects on the individual who pass through this transfer are huge. Thegirls are sent on to a country which has a very different social structure from the UAE andthus the maids are expected to perform very different roles. “The problem is that in Omanthings are different from in the UAE. Here you have a whole family living in one house andthe worker is expected to do everything and have to work longer hours, often with lowersalaries.”As with other parts of the GCC, abuse is frequent and takes many different forms. Manyof the girls I spoke to at the refuge fled their employers because of physical abuse. Onegirl who had only been at the refuge for a few days would not explain why she fled, but thescratch marks on her chest were undoubtedly a factor in this. Another girl tells me that shewas encouraged by her employer on a daily basis to sleep with him, while the wife told herthat she must do whatever the ‘master’ says. “Sexual abuse is a regular complaint with thegirls. When the wife leaves the house, many complain that the men walk around the housenaked, and many girls are raped. With rape, it is hard to file a complaint because the lawsays you need witnesses,” he says. “They are usually treated like slaves by their employersas they believe that because they paid money for them, they own them.”Cases where physical or sexual abuse are evident are usually resolved swiftly, with theemployer passing on the necessary documents to ensure the girls go back to the Philippinesas quickly as possible so the slim danger of being taken to court never materialises. Forothers, the process of leaving the country is usually a long drawn out affair, with somegirls living for over a year in the embassy until their cases are decided. “The employerspaid money to have the girls come to Oman, so usually they want to get it back from theagency before they sign the papers to release the girls. When the case goes to court thenthey (the employer) simply don’t turn up and the hearing is postponed for another week,”Amelito says.“I didn’t feel human. I was expectedto work all the time and had no breakand my salary was paid late.”22 23