Saudi Arabia police

It says some cases amount to slavery, with employers going unpunished for withholding wages, forced confinement, or physical and sexual violence.

Severe punishments

Human Rights Watch says some workers are imprisoned or lashed on spurious charges of theft, adultery or witchcraft, and thousands take shelter with the Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs or foreign embassies.

A spokeswoman for Saudi Arabia's National Society for Human Rights said the report was unfair and one-sided.

Saudi households employ an estimated one-point-five million domestic workers, mainly from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Nepal; smaller numbers are from other Asian countries or Africa.

The 133-page report, “‘As If I Am Not Human’: Abuses against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia,” concludes two years of research and is based on 142 interviews with domestic workers, senior government officials, and labor recruiters in Saudi Arabia and labor-sending countries.

Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch whod did this research says excessive workload and unpaid wages, for periods ranging from a few months to 10 years, are among the most common complaints.

Rights denied

The Kingdom’s Labor Law excludes domestic workers, denying them rights guaranteed to other workers, such as a weekly rest day and overtime pay. Many domestic workers must work 18 hours a day, seven days a week, she says in her report.

The restrictive kafala (sponsorship) system ties migrant workers’ visas to their employers, and means employers can deny workers the ability to change jobs or leave the country,report says.

Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of women who said their employers forced them to work against their will for months or years.

Employers often take away passports, and lock workers in the home, increasing their isolation and risk of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, says HRW.

After interviews with 86 domestic workers, Human Rights Watch concluded that 36 faced abuses that amounted to forced labor, trafficking, or slavery-like conditions.

“The Saudi government has some good proposals for reform but it has spent years considering them without taking any action,” Nisha Varia said.

It’s now time to make these changes, which include covering domestic workers under the 2005 Labor Law and changing the kafala system so that workers’ visas are no longer tied to their employers.”, she says.

Ambassador's reaction

The Sri Lankan Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, A.A.M.Marleen reacting to the HRW report says that proposals are being made to abolish the sponsorship system which enables employers to hold employees against their will.

Ambassador Marleen said that Sri Lanka Foreign employement Bureau is responsible for some of the problems faced by the migrant employees.

"Some come to work for employers whose income is low and is incapable of paying salaries. The employees suffer", Marleen said.

There are cases where the contract signed in Saudi Arabia is different to the one signed in Sri Lanka he claimed.

The ambassador said that there is no screening process to identify "genuine agents from bogus operators".

"Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau should take responsibility for these and cancel the licence of defaulters," Ambassador Marleen, added.