Saudi Arabia: Why do some housemaids run away from rightful employers just before Ramadan?

Cairo: High demand for domestic workers in the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is the main reason for their escape from rightful employers to land lucrative jobs during this time, according to a Saudi expert.

“The supply and demand law is at work. When there are plentiful job opportunities, workers have the chance to escape,” Saeed Al Harthi, the head of a human resources company, told Saudi television Al Ekhbariya.

“One of the most important reasons for absence of female house workers in the run-up to the month of Ramadan is availability of job opportunities for them at this time.”

He explained that many families are increasingly in need of domestic workers.

“The wife and husband have their jobs now. So, there is a need to someone to take care of the house and children,” he said.

“Every household needs house workers in Ramadan when schools also work. Therefore, chances are many and so are temptations.”

Ramadan, due to begin later this month, is usually marked by family gatherings for Iftar at the sunset after a day-long fast.

Al Harthi accused what he called a “mafia” of manipulating the high demand and providing lucrative-but-illegal jobs for female domestic workers.

Domestic workers in Saudi Arabia include housekeepers, drivers, housemaids, cleaners, cooks, guards, farmers, live-in nurses, tutors and nannies.

As part of its efforts to regulate the labour market, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources has set up the Musaned domestic labour platform to help clients learn about their rights and duties, and related services including visa issuance, recruitment requests and contractual relation between the employer and the worker.

The ministry has made the contracting process obligatory via the Musaned, being the official recruitment platform in the kingdom.

The number of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia reached 3.5 million in the third quarter of last year, an increase of nearly 193,000 against the second quarter of the same year, a local newspaper reported last January.

The increase is the highest since the final quarter of 2019 when an increase of 464,000 was recorded, Al Eqtisadiah said in a report based on official figures.

The Q3 rise in domestic labour in 2022 was mainly due to an increase in numbers of house servants and cleaning workers who reached 155,000 people during the three months, the report said.