Slaves Of Saudis: Terrorisation of foreign workers

By Joy Raphael

When you applied for work in Saudi Arabia, didn’t you think you would work for a few years, make a pile, marry off your daughter or sister, build a home, and retire to the good life?

When you paid the huge commission to the recruitment agent and a large fee for your visa, did anybody tell you the bad news?

That your contract may be ‘renegotiated’ once you land in Saudi Arabia. You may not be paid your salary for months. You may have to sleep in chains. You may be falsely charged, perfunctorily tried and jailed. You may be threatened with sacking or your salary may be withheld if you spurn your employer’s ‘suggestion’ to convert to Islam.

If you are a maid, you might be raped. If you are a male you may be thrashed by your boss for even a minor bungle.

The dangers foreign workers face in Saudi Arabia are manifold. Yet the foreign embassies behave like ostriches, leaving the vulnerable employees to Saudi mercy. Meanwhile, thousands continue to queue up with job agents in New Delhi, Mumbai, Karachi, Dhaka, Colombo, Manila and other cities... lured by the petrodollars that they believe will fulfil their dreams of a better life for themselves and their families.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joy Raphael
• Release date: Jul 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9789382788652

Book preview

Starters

Within weeks of arriving in the oil-rich desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the late 1980s, I began hearing agonising stories of the brutalisation of expatriate workers with increasing frequency. Most of the maltreated workers were from Asian countries like India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. All sorts of atrocities were committed on them. They were treated like slaves. Their rights, self-respect and dignity were violated. And their cries for help went unheard.

The governments of their countries, though aware of their suffering, have never been able to do much to help them. Year after year, human rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly focused on their plight. At times, the print and electronic media have highlighted their harrowing stories. But Saudi Arabia, a member of the International Labour Organisation since 1976 and a signatory to its conventions, has always been in a state of denial about this brutalisation of the expatriate labour force. On some occasions, under international pressure, the Saudis have promised to investigate cases of abuse and take remedial measures. But most of these promises have remained just promises.

An Indian friend, the manager of a Riyadh bank, now a senior manager at the HSBC in New York, once told me, "There is no difference between a driver or a labourer and me in this country. The Saudis look at us all through the same glasses. For them, we are all dark-skinned miskeen, poor people from poor Asian countries. I have no illusions about my job and my high salary. When the time comes, they will kick me in the butt and throw me out. All you can do is be stoic and save as much as you can so you can get out of the country fast." And, true enough, he had to leave when he found a Saudi sitting in his chair one morning.

I worked as a journalist in the now defunct Riyadh Daily for 14 years. Once when I protested against the ill-treatment of another colleague, the editor told me, Take what you get and keep quiet. You Indians do not have much respect here. Even the Egyptians in the administrative department don’t respect you guys. Till then I had thought his mind would be more open since he had worked in Washington for close to 10 years as a correspondent for Al Riyadh, the popular Arabic newspaper from the Riyadh Daily stable. But it seemed that all those years spent in the United States hadn’t changed his narrow outlook.

The two million Indians – comprising the largest segment of the foreign workforce – are treated like beggars. As are the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Indonesians, Filipinos and others from Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea and a number of other countries who form the seven million expatriate workforce. The whites – from the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe and America – are treated with respect, bordering on reverence. Their salaries are higher compared to those of their Asian equals. Their living conditions are way better. They are ranked first class, on par with Saudi nationals. Arab workers from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and other countries get better treatment than the Asians. They are second class. The Asians and the Africans are third class, Third World country nationals, worthy only of total contempt.

Not much has been written in the past about the pathetic state of the foreign workers, especially those from Asia. This book contains true stories of their mistreatment collected during my long stay in Saudi Arabia. The names of the protagonists have been changed as some may still be living in Saudi Arabia. Though the stories have been dramatised to hold the interest of readers, they present the truth.

Will this book make any difference in the lives of over seven million foreign workers from India and other countries? I doubt it. Yet this book is a tribute to these hapless people working in extremely adverse conditions to realise their dream of a better life for themselves and their families.

Freedom

There are more don’ts than do’s in the desert-nation of Saudi Arabia. It’s better to stick to the do’s and sleep peacefully. Dabbling with the don’ts may lead to terrifying experiences. If you are caught talking with men or women not your blood relations or spouses, punishment and prison await you. If you are a non-Muslim, practising your faith in private, you could be tortured and sentenced to jail for a long time. If you are caught having liquor, you could be lashed on the backside, tonsured, tortured and jailed. Several other activities considered normal in most parts of the world are crimes and liable for severe punishment.

One September morning, after living for months without a break in the vast open prison that’s Saudi Arabia, I was suddenly soaking in the freedom of Cairo. Four days of freedom with food, liquor and accommodation in the five-star Hotel Flamingo in the Zamalek quarter of the Egyptian capital, sponsored by an American airline, seemed like heaven. But even while walking free in Cairo, I could not forget the painful experiences of countless workers from Third World countries who had come to Saudi Arabia to ensure a comfortable future for themselves and their families. Among those I could not forget was Nura Nujati, an Indonesian maid.

Nura had nursed great dreams after being recruited in Jakarta to work at the house of a Saudi military official in the Oleya district of Riyadh. But those dreams died within a few hours of her arrival.

Nura wanted to make enough money to see her younger sister and brother through college. She did not want them to work in some construction site, like their ageing father, or in some rich man’s home. She also wanted her father to stop working from the wee hours to late in the evening. After spending a lifetime labouring hard for his wife and children, it was time for him to relax.

On her first day in Riyadh, she realised that coming to Saudi Arabia had been a big mistake. When Nura failed to finish cleaning the sprawling villa in time, she was beaten by the official’s wife. When she dropped a spoon in the kitchen, she was beaten again. Her husband also thrashed Nura when he came home after work and heard his wife complain about her carelessness.

Nura’s despair grew by the day. And she soon began thinking of escape. But where would she go? She was never allowed outside the plush villa surrounded by a 12 feet-high wall with a guard at the gate.

Most villas in Saudi Arabia, in which locals live, have high walls around them. The high walls are not to deter thieves. They are to prevent strangers from ogling at Saudi women walking in modern, often skimpy, clothes without even a small piece of black covering them. High walls shield some swimming pools in which Saudi women in bikinis laze around for hours. Many swimming pools even have tin roofs to prevent people from scaling the walls to take a peek at the semi-nude Saudi women back-floating in them.

Nura knew no one in the city even if she managed to escape. She had no knowledge of the city’s layout. She had seen parts of Riyadh just once, during the drive from the airport where she had been picked up by the military official’s Saudi driver on her arrival from Jakarta on a Garuda Airlines flight.

Four months went by and Nura still had not been paid her salary. In fact, she had not received a riyal note or even a hallalah coin. Whenever she asked for money to send home, her mistress screamed at her.

Worse was yet to come. One morning, when Nura failed to turn up in the kitchen, the Saudi’s wife stomped up to her living quarters. When she saw Nura still in bed, she yelled at her for not waking up on time to do her morning chores.

I have a fever and headache, stuttered Nura unable to get up from the bed.

Shouting abuses like "kalb, dog" the wife dragged her out of the bed and out of the room towards the kitchen. Nura screamed in pain. The Saudi husband rattled by her screaming punched her in the face. He then pinned her against the wall and bound her hands and legs tight with a rope. Nura continued to scream. But no help came. She was dragged to an unused bathroom and dumped there.

Nura lay on the bare floor of the bathroom for about a month. She was rarely given food and water. She was not allowed to bathe or brush her teeth. And she was not allowed to change her clothes.

One morning, the wife saw Nura lying motionless. She shouted at her. When Nura failed to respond, she panicked and ran to her husband and told him that the maid seemed to be unconscious. He hastened to the bathroom to check. Seeing Nura motionless with her eyes shut, he too panicked. After a short discussion with his wife, he dialled the Indonesian embassy.

Soon after, an official from the embassy’s labour section arrived. Nura was lying on a bed in one of the spare rooms where she had been carried by the Indian driver after she was untied. Seeing the maid’s condition, the official sensed that something was terribly wrong. Since the Saudi was with him, he refrained from asking the barely-conscious Nura any questions.

Behaving naturally, as if nothing had happened, the Saudi told him that the maid was free to go back to Indonesia.

I have paid her salary regularly. I owe her nothing, the Saudi told the official as he helped him carry Nura to the car.

At the embassy, a Pakistani doctor examined Nura. He realised her condition was serious. Her hands and legs were discoloured. After being given medication, she regained consciousness. In a delirious state, she murmured a few words about what had happened to her over the months.

Send her home at once or she will die, the doctor said.

Nura’s Saudi employer was asked to return her passport with the ‘final exit’ seal from the passport department.

An expatriate worker has to hand over his passport to the employer as soon as he sets foot in the country. If he wants to quit his job and leave the country permanently, the employer has to get a ‘final exit’ stamp on the passport from the immigration department. Workers wanting to leave Saudi Arabia for a short while, need an ‘exit and re-entry’ stamp on their passports. And all this can be done only by a local with the designation ‘PRO’. Every office has a PRO. Getting the ‘exit

Reviews for Slaves Of Saudis

[Ahmed · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Poorly written, with hatred toward KSA written all over it. Usless, and a waste of time.

[khalidhilali · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I don't know how the writer knew all of the details of Nura story even after she arrived to Jakarta, it's good fiction but no to be considered as real accurate story