A1SaudiArabia.com

TAIF – Five Asian housemaids, accompanying their employers to a family gathering in Riyadh last week escaped their sponsors while the families were having tea after dinner.

The employers said that when they discovered that the housemaids had gone they immediately went back to their houses fearing they would be robbed. Hamid Al-Malki said the housemaids had taken out the garbage outside after dinner. “We didnt realize it was a collective escape.” The incident was reported to police, he added. – Okaz/SG

RIYADH: Sri Lanka rejected rumors on Friday the Kingdom has imposed a ban on recruiting maids from the country.

We do not feel such a move will even take place since there is a great demand for Sri Lankan maids in Saudi Arabia, Kingsley Ranawaka, chairman of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, told Arab News.

Saudi media reported recently that the Kingdom is considering banning maids from countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam due to maids being unsuitable to suit Saudi culture.

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MAKKAH: The son of a woman murdered by her maid in Makkah has denied reports the killer was treated badly.

He claimed in a report published in Al-Madinah newspaper that his mother and sister had looked after her well. He added that after the murder, they found a foul-smelling bag in the maids room containing his sisters clothes.

He also found small pieces of paper containing strange writings in it. He asked a local sheikh to see the bag, who confirmed that it was a form of black magic.

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JEDDAH: Nine days after her arrival to Qatif, Eastern Province, to work as a housemaid, the 21-year-old Indonesian woman identified as Leni says she was abducted and gang-raped by eight masked men.

Police are searching for suspects after the maid was kicked out of a vehicle in front of a hospital. They took me in a car to an unknown place, she told Al-Yaum Arabic daily in a report published on Friday.

She said two men grabbed her and three other men were in the vehicle that had windows tinted. Leni says the men took her to a place about 10 minutes from the home where she works. She was forced into a building where she encountered three other men.

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JEDDAH: There is a move on the part of Saudi authorities to stop housemaids coming from certain countries. We are serious in imposing a ban on the import of housemaids from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam, said Ali Al-Quraishi, vice president of the local Labor Recruitment Committee.

The main reason for considering such a ban is that the labor recruiters in those countries are not qualified enough to supply housemaids that suit the local culture and tradition. There is no proper selection process of housemaids to suit this market, nor are they given orientation before they leave their countries, he added.

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JEDDAH: The second of two abused Indian maids, Fathima Bebe, left for India on Wednesday in what seems is the final chapter of their sad story.

The first maid, Aisha Sultana, left the Kingdom about a month ago after her sponsor returned her passport and gave her immigration clearance. Bebe, however, was left in the Kingdom as her sponsorship had been transferred, without her knowledge, to the boss of a labor placement agency where the two women had been sent.

The maids had been ill-treated in Riyadh since their arrival from India several months ago. Sultana was starved for an entire month, and both were sent to the labor agency to work in different households without pay.

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RIYADH: Cairo will not send Egyptian women to work as housemaids in the Kingdom, a senior Egyptian official visiting the capital said on Saturday.

We will not send our women as housemaids due to social and cultural concerns, said Aisha Abdel-Hadi, the Egyptian labor minister, following talks with Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid, deputy minister of labor, on Saturday.

Abdel-Hadi, who is heading a labor delegation, discussed a wide-range of issues relating to the Egyptian labor force in the Kingdom.

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RIYADH: The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) is asking Riyadh to conduct a full inquiry into the murder of Balakrishnan Dharshani, 26, a maid from Kandy who was working in Hofuf, Eastern Province.

The events that led authorities to the body on Dec. 19 are unknown, but an anonymous official of the Lankan Embassy told Arab News on Saturday that the body had burn marks and that the sponsor is in custody.

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JEDDAH: Allegations about maids casting spells and being involved in black magic has driven fearful housewives to call on the help of investigators. The main purpose of calling these women is to investigate maids before they go back to their countries.

The majority of investigators are non-Saudis who have lately been joined by some Saudi graduates unable to find proper jobs. The job of the investigators involves checking the personal property of maids in search of sponsors photographs, hair or clothes that can then be used for magic when the maid returns home.

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JEDDAH: The heartbreaking story of two abused Indian maids from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad has caught the attention of many, especially fellow Indians from Hyderabad.

We the Hyderabadi community in the Kingdom will unite to help these poor victimized women. We will do everything within our power to help them. They are not alone, said Sarfaraz Khan, vice president of the Hyderabad Cricket League (HCL).

We have 200 members at the club, and we will expand our network by e-mails, phone calls and word of mouth to help these women, he added.

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