Filipino Maids Rescued from ‘Job Tending to Animals’
The Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh (POLO-Riyadh) said it “rescued” two Filipino workers who were recruited as housemaids but forced to work as animal caretakers.
The workers had run away from their sponsors for whom they had worked for seven months in Hail. The POLO enlisted the help of community leaders in the region to help the workers who had sought refuge in a mountainous area. The two were eventually turned over to the POLO.
The workers had apparently not eaten for five days and only had bottles of water with them. The POLO had launched a search after receiving information about their situation from the Philippines. They had been working for a man and his son.
The two alleged that they had been recruited as maids but then forced to care for animals. They also claimed that they only received SR800 instead of SR1,500 a month stipulated in the labor pact signed between the Philippines and the Kingdom.
They also alleged that they were recruited illegally because instead of flying directly from the Philippines to the Kingdom, they flew from Manila to Iloilo province in Visayas, south of Manila, on to Mumbai and then Saudi Arabia.
Earlier, the POLO also took up the case of two Filipinos who alleged that they had been recruited as dressmakers in Manila but rented out to work as housemaids for SR5,000 each.
They also claimed that they had been paid SR1,200 to SR1,300 monthly, instead of the SR1,875 plus SR300 food allowance stipulated in their signed contracts.