Staff Reporter :
I had to start working at 4:30 a.m. and finish at 1 a.m. For the entire day they did not allow me to take rest. I used to become exhausted. There were 20 rooms and over 2 floors. My employer even did not give me food. Whenever I wanted to leave, he said, “I bought you for 1,560 riyals (US$4,052) from Dubai. Give it back to me and then you can go.” -Asma K., a Bangladeshi domestic worker, in Oman, said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch in its latest report, published on Wednesday, said “many migrant domestic workers, especially Bangladeshis, are trapped in abusive employment in Oman, their plight hidden behind closed doors.”
In its 68-page report, titled “I was sold: Abuse and exploitation of migrant workers in Oman”; the HRW said that employers can force domestic workers to work without rest, pay, or food, knowing they can be punished if they escape, while the employers rarely face penalties for abuse.
To prepare the report, the HRW interviewed 59 migrant workers where most of them said they were forced to work after being trafficked. It was also alleged that they were also subjected to torture, although their owners claimed that they bought the workers through “kafala”.
According to the report, many families in Oman, like other Gulf states, rely on migrant domestic workers to care for their children, cook their meals, and clean their homes. At least 130,000 female migrant domestic
workers-and possibly many more-are employed in the country.
Many workers leave families in Asia and Africa-including the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Ethiopia-after recruiters promise them decent salaries and good working conditions. For some workers, these promises are realized.
But for others, the reality is bleak. After they arrive, many find themselves trapped with abusive employers and forced to work in exploitative conditions, their plight hidden behind closed doors.
In some cases, workers described abuses that amounted to forced labour or trafficking, including across Oman’s porous border with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While this report does not purport to quantify the precise scale of these abuses, it is clear that abuses are widespread and that they are generally carried out with impunity.
Most of the workers we interviewed said their employers confiscated their passports, a practice that appears to be common even though Oman’s government prohibits it. Many said their employers did not pay them their full salaries, forced them to work excessively long hours without breaks or days off, or denied them adequate food and living conditions. Some said their employers physically abused them; a few described sexual abuse.
Instead of protecting domestic workers from these abuses, Oman’s laws and policies make them more vulnerable. In fact, Oman’s legal framework is often more effective in allowing employers to retaliate against workers who flee abusive situations than in securing domestic workers’ rights or ensuring their physical safety. The country’s immigration system prohibits migrant workers from leaving their employers or loose for new employment without their initial employers’ consent. Oman’s labour law excludes domestic workers from its protections, and those who flee abuse have little avenue for redress.
The situation is so dire for many domestic workers that some countries, such as Indonesia, have banned their nationals from migrating to Oman for domestic work. However, such wholesale bans are ineffective, and can put women at heightened risk of trafficking or forced labour as they and recruiters try to circumvent the ban.
Oman also at times bans domestic workers coming from some countries. According to a news report, in 2016 the authorities banned workers from Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, Guinea, and Cameroon, on the dubious grounds of preventing “the spread of diseases from these African countries to Oman” and because it said workers from these countries “get involved in certain crimes.”
Female migrant domestic workers face multiple forms of discrimination and arbitrary government policies: as domestic workers, they are excluded from equal labour law protections guaranteed to other workers; as women, regulations provide that they can be paid less than male domestic workers; and as migrants, their salaries are based on their national origin rather than their skills and experience.
These policies and practices violate Oman’s obligations under human rights treaties it has ratified, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
I had to start working at 4:30 a.m. and finish at 1 a.m. For the entire day they did not allow me to take rest. I used to become exhausted. There were 20 rooms and over 2 floors. My employer even did not give me food. Whenever I wanted to leave, he said, “I bought you for 1,560 riyals (US$4,052) from Dubai. Give it back to me and then you can go.” -Asma K., a Bangladeshi domestic worker, in Oman, said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch in its latest report, published on Wednesday, said “many migrant domestic workers, especially Bangladeshis, are trapped in abusive employment in Oman, their plight hidden behind closed doors.”
In its 68-page report, titled “I was sold: Abuse and exploitation of migrant workers in Oman”; the HRW said that employers can force domestic workers to work without rest, pay, or food, knowing they can be punished if they escape, while the employers rarely face penalties for abuse.
To prepare the report, the HRW interviewed 59 migrant workers where most of them said they were forced to work after being trafficked. It was also alleged that they were also subjected to torture, although their owners claimed that they bought the workers through “kafala”.
According to the report, many families in Oman, like other Gulf states, rely on migrant domestic workers to care for their children, cook their meals, and clean their homes. At least 130,000 female migrant domestic
workers-and possibly many more-are employed in the country.
Many workers leave families in Asia and Africa-including the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Ethiopia-after recruiters promise them decent salaries and good working conditions. For some workers, these promises are realized.
But for others, the reality is bleak. After they arrive, many find themselves trapped with abusive employers and forced to work in exploitative conditions, their plight hidden behind closed doors.
In some cases, workers described abuses that amounted to forced labour or trafficking, including across Oman’s porous border with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While this report does not purport to quantify the precise scale of these abuses, it is clear that abuses are widespread and that they are generally carried out with impunity.
Most of the workers we interviewed said their employers confiscated their passports, a practice that appears to be common even though Oman’s government prohibits it. Many said their employers did not pay them their full salaries, forced them to work excessively long hours without breaks or days off, or denied them adequate food and living conditions. Some said their employers physically abused them; a few described sexual abuse.
Instead of protecting domestic workers from these abuses, Oman’s laws and policies make them more vulnerable. In fact, Oman’s legal framework is often more effective in allowing employers to retaliate against workers who flee abusive situations than in securing domestic workers’ rights or ensuring their physical safety. The country’s immigration system prohibits migrant workers from leaving their employers or loose for new employment without their initial employers’ consent. Oman’s labour law excludes domestic workers from its protections, and those who flee abuse have little avenue for redress.
The situation is so dire for many domestic workers that some countries, such as Indonesia, have banned their nationals from migrating to Oman for domestic work. However, such wholesale bans are ineffective, and can put women at heightened risk of trafficking or forced labour as they and recruiters try to circumvent the ban.
Oman also at times bans domestic workers coming from some countries. According to a news report, in 2016 the authorities banned workers from Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, Guinea, and Cameroon, on the dubious grounds of preventing “the spread of diseases from these African countries to Oman” and because it said workers from these countries “get involved in certain crimes.”
Female migrant domestic workers face multiple forms of discrimination and arbitrary government policies: as domestic workers, they are excluded from equal labour law protections guaranteed to other workers; as women, regulations provide that they can be paid less than male domestic workers; and as migrants, their salaries are based on their national origin rather than their skills and experience.
These policies and practices violate Oman’s obligations under human rights treaties it has ratified, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
