The Indian Diplomat and her houseworker
There have been a lot of accusations made about how this diplomat was abused (several have continued to believe she was given a full body cavity search, when she was only given a strip search) and her house worker was simply greedy.
I came across this paper in a reading assignment for my class on the Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World. Certainly if Filipino and Malaysian workers are being treated this poorly, I would think Indian workers are as well.
DOMESTIC WORKERS IN SAUDI ARABIA AND THE EMIRATES
ABSTRACT
This article responds to Jureidini’s article ‘Trafficking and Contract Migrant Workers in
the Middle East’ published in International Migration. Jureidini discusses the difficulty
of establishing whether migrant domestic workers are victims of trafficking. He
discusses the questions (i) if trafficking can be determined ex post or must it also be ex
ante and (ii) if there must be a proven intent to trafficking. On the basis of data
concerning domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, I argue that they often
are victims of trafficking. In these two countries, forced confinement and exploitation
do not concern individual cases but standard labour conditions. Agents in the countries
of origin regularly misinform or even deceive domestic workers, while agents in the
countries of destination actively stimulate confinement and exploitation. The lack of
prosecution of traffickers furthermore is not caused by legal obscurities, but by societal
issues. The article concludes with some policy suggestions to better address the issue of
trafficking.
Free download:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1933749