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A Filipino maid wipes a kitchen worktop. (File)
The Philippines intends to lift a ban on its domestic workers to travel to Saudi Arabia next month in line with an agreement between the two countries on a new job contract following more than one year of negotiations.
Officials indicated Saudi Arabia, the largest importer of Asian labour in the Middle East, has bowed to demands by Manila to increase the monthly wage for its maids and given them new rights, ncluding protection and less work hours.
“Saudi Arabia is expected to resume issuing visas for Philippine housemaids in October following an agreement between the two countries,” Saudi assistant foreign minister Prince Khaled bin Saud told the official news agency SPA.
He said the accord stipulated revision of the work contract and needed documents, adding that such measures would not “infringe on Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty or the rights and privacy of Saudi citizens.”
He gave no further details but the Philippines and Indonesia, which both have been locked in negotiations with Riyadh over the return of their maids, have set new terms for ending the ban. They include higher wages, less work hours, a weekly holiday, and the need for maids to keep their passports.
It was not clear if the Kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, has agreed to all the demands, including one that stipulates Saudi employers to send copies of passports of their family to the embassies of those two countries.
“We will exert efforts to facilitate recruitment of those maids in a way that will protect the rights of both the Saudi employer and the worker,” the Prince said.
More than 1.5 million housemaids from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other Asian and African nations work in Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom has been under fire from local and foreign human rights groups over the death of some housemaids, who have been reportedly killed by their employers. Pressure mounted in late 2010 following news that an Indonesian housemaid was severely tortured by its female employer.
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