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“We are full of cries. Help us; we are like slaves. We work without pay and we get sexually assaulted by our masters.” Kadiatu (not her real name) narrated their ordeal in Oman to a team of investigators who recently documented the plight of Sierra Leoneans girls working as maids in that country.
Sierra Leonean girls desperate for overseas employment allow themselves to be hoodwinked by human traffickers parading as employment agents. Even as there have been reports of rampant maltreated of maids in Middle Eastern countries, girls from Sierra Leone continue to fall prey to the human trafficking syndicate because they feel the only way to better their lives and that of their families is to seek employment abroad by whatever means possible.
Kadiatu’s story is the same for over one hundred girls trapped, unable to return home with many of them practically roaming the streets of Katar and other towns in Oman. Over the years the International Office for Migration (IOM) has been collaborating with the Government of Sierra Leone to facilitate the repatriation of women who happen to find themselves as house maids in Lebanon, Kuwait and other Middle East countries yet several others continue to be trafficked to Middle East countries. Grim reports of mistreatment of Sierra Leonean maids who find themselves in those countries through irregular migration continue to be topical in the international media, and recent finding has shown that there are still nearly two hundred unfortunate ladies trapped in different parts of Oman desperate to return home.
Oman has become the latest destination African and Asian girls who are literally ‘sold’ into slavery in the guise of a house maid. In the carefully conducted media inquisition, girls from Sierra Leone, mostly between twenty and twenty-five years of age have told how they found themselves in that part of the world and what they have been made to become against their will and expectation.
“We were just being trickled by some agents. They never told us the correct story as many of us were hoping to reach Europe but discovered we were being brought to the Middle East to serve families as house maids,” they told their stories. They paid so much money to make the trip through agents who promise them decent work and life in Europe.
“But we ended up at Katar and the agents seized our passport on arrival at the airport.” They said they were brought to Oman through Senegal and their agents ‘sold’ them to become properties of Arab families. All the promise of coming to work in hotels and restaurants with decent pay elude them as they are sold to families who take them distant rural countryside homes as house maids as sex slaves.
“We endure long working hours of over eighteen a day, with little food and rest. Most often we are forced to sleep on counters, cupboards, and balconies like animals,” Kadiatu broke down when narrating their ordeal to investigators as she recounted their humiliation. She said they work without pay and get sexually assaulted by their masters.
The trafficking and maltreatment of migrant girls in the Middle East have always been brought to the attention of the government for action but it has always been difficult to track down the traffickers. During the BBC inquisition, an official from the Chancellery of the Sierra Leone Embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed to the team that they were aware of the illegal migration and how the trafficked girls to the Middle East were being treated.
“We are working with International NGOs to locate the maids and ensure those who want to return home are assisted to do so,” head of Chancellery at the Sierra Leone Embassy in Riyadh informed. But according to the official, the situation in Oman is so complex to handle. He said even as they prepare emergency travel certificates for those desperate to return home, some ladies are being arrested at the airport by Oman security officials and this is posing additional problem to government’s registration efforts. He said some of the ladies pursued at the airports were on the run from their masters as they were hired under the Kafala system that makes it criminal offence for maids to run away. According to the Embassy, most of these things happen in the hinter land as the Oman government does not condone maid maltreatment.
To minimize irregular migration, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security is now working with reputable institutions in the recruitment process for those opting for overseas employment. Currently about 300 ladies recruited through the scrupulous process await engagements in Saudi Arabia as maids.
