Amelito Adel, the 0verseas Workers Wetfare Association (OWWA) officer w1h

KilOW
the Philippines Embassy, is frustrated and understandably s0. He has spent the
whole day dealing with case after case of the same heart-breaking stories; stories
of servitude and ill-treatment that could have been lifted straight from a Dickens
novel. Lorna is one of these ladies. She now lives with forty other ladies who
have
also fled from their employers at the OWWA Centre, a refuge of sorts attached
to
the Philippines Embassy. Until their cases are resolved, the embassy area is their

UR temporary home. Hunched and timid, Lorna occasionally peers over her thin-framed
glasses as she quietly explains how she came to be a resident in the
embassy and it
is a common story. Lorna was employed by a local family as a domestic worker,
with
the promise of 400 dollars a month. She quickly came to realise that the golden life

RIGHT$
she had hoped for in 0man was to be very different. Upon arrival in the country she
was informed by her employerthat she would only be paid B0 rials a month. with no
days off. Speaking 0f the experience she says, "l didn't feel human. I was expected
to work all the time and had no break and my salary was never paid on time."

The gruelling days and general ill-treatment was

just the start of her painful path here in 0man.
After being beaten by the "madam" for supposedly
stealing food, she lived for a further six months at
the home in constant fear with no knowredge of her
rights. The final straw came when her "master"
pushed her against the wall for "answering back"
and began to slap her. Lorna says, "He said it is
good for me to be beaten because he is better
than me. He said it's good for me to kiss his feet
because I am just a housemaid." with a black eye
and bruises over her body she fled to the embassy.
A complaint was filed against her ex-employer but
she says nothing was done about the probrem and
now she is waiting to return to the philippines,
although she does not know when this will be.
This power still remains with her ex-emproyer who
still holds the release paper that Lorna requires in
order to leave the country. she says, "There is still
one girl working there as the babysitter, but she is
stronger than me. she can handle being treated
like this."

It's stories like Lorna's which are whispered across dinner tables acrgss Muscat to
hummed nods of sympathy, yet little else is done for her. lnstead her life is replayed
through forms and phone calls between her ex-employer, departments in ministries
and other levels of bureaucracy. She is now waiting in limbo in the confined walls of
the embassy until her case is resolved. There have been frequent complaints from
the Philippines Embassy about the treatment of domestic workers in the Sultanate
from many different levels. When I discuss the problem with staff there one word
which frequently pops up is "slave" - an extremely strong word, but these are the
people who deal with dozens of cases of abuse and ill-treatment
every week and are
probably more informed of the real situation for domestic workers than anygne
else
in the country. Although there have been efforts to help resolve the s1uation by the
government, these measures are usually half-baked or completely ineffective.
The
well-known 400 dollar minimum wage requirement that employers must sign when
recruiting maids is little more than a formality. lt was drafted by the Philippines government
and thus a regulation that the Sultanate, like the rest of the GCC, is not tied to. Another
formality in the process of recruitment for household workers is a 'bill of rights' that the
employer must read and attach to every contract. However, as the house maids are in no
way entitled to view this document then the employees are usually unaware of their rights.
lnstead, it is left to the employer to inform their 'hired hand' of their civil liberties; which is
obviously very rarely done. None of the girls I spoke to had seen the document.

Although there are vast abuses of workers' rights from agencies and employers in the
Sultanate, the real problem comes from an illegal practice of hiring workers from an agency
in the UAE before sending them on to Oman with tourist visas. These girls thus slip through

any veneers ol protection they might be entitled to, and aS such, they are often without
labour cards and are essentially confined to the house as illegal workers. With the girls
staying in the country on expired tourist visas, they are reluctant to go to the police if they
are abused or mistreated by their employer. Amelito says, "99 percent of the girls here (at
the refuge)were recruited this way. We've frequently complained to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs to solve the problem but it is still continuing." The agency in the UAE treats the
employees as cattle rather than human beings. When a contract expires between a house
maid and a UAE employee the worker is sold on to clients in Oman without going through
the more vigorous process that agencies here in 0man are subject to. This process is
"simply human tralficking and it happens frequently," Amelito informs me. He adds, "They
are treated as a commodity and the agency fools these girls to come over here and forces

them to work." The effects on the individual who pass through this transfer are huge. The
girls are sent on to a country which has a very different social structure from the UAE and
thus the maids are expected to perform very different roles. "The problem is that in Oman
things are different from in the UAE. Here you have a whole family living in one house and
the worker is expected to do everything and have to work longer hours, often with lower
salaries."

As with other parts of the GCC, abuse is frequent and takes many different forms. Many
of the girls I spoke to at the refuge fled their employers because of physical abuse. One
girl who had only been at the refuge for a few days would not explain why she fled, but the

scratch marks on her chest were undoubtedly a factor in this. Another girl tells me that she
was encouraged by her employer on a daily basis to sleep with him, while the wife told her
that she must do whatever the 'master' says. "sexual abuse is a regular complaint with the
girls. When the wife leaves the house, many complain that the men walk around the house
naked, and many girls are raped. With rape, it is hard to file a complaint because the law
SayS you need witnesses," he SayS. "They are usually treated like slaves by their employers
as they believe that because they paid money for them, they own them."

Cases where physical or sexual abuse are evident are usually resolved swiftly, with the
employer passing on the necessary documents to ensure the girls go back to the Philippines
as quickly as possible so the slim danger of being taken to court never materialises. For
others, the process of leaving the country is usually a long drawn out affair, with some
girls living for over a year in the embassy until their cases are decided. "The employers
paid money to have the girls come to Oman, so usually they want to get it back from the
agency before they sign the papers to release the girls. When the case goes to c0urt then
they (the employer) simply don't turn up and the hearing is postponed for another week,"
Amelito says.

22 lw
Another worker at the refuge centre reiterates this frustrating problem, saying, means arrest by the police, and would likely bring further problems for the
-They are just after the money from their agency so they will keep the girls in ladies. Lorna, however, is relieved to be at the embassy, and looks forward to

the country until they get their registration fees back. lt's very common. Other the day when she can see her daughter and husband again, who wait for her at

lr-nes, when there are complaints of abuse, then they try to take revenge 0n home. The gamble she took of moving to Oman to help support her family was

t'e girls by not signing the release papers. One of the girls has been here for ill-judged, but now she says she knows she will be happier in the Philippines

tr,r o ,,ears because of this." But the girls, who live crammed into the centre,
plenty
-,t- d be said to be the lucky ones in some respects. Although there are
:'^cmes acrgss 0man where hired helpers are treated well and are seen as
3a: if the family, the number of girls at the refuge is living proof that abuse in
:€ iluntry is common. These girls were fortunate enough to be situated in the
_;i! ldl where the Philippines Embassy is just a taxi ride away. ln other cities
t,-,lS ce Muscat, things are bleak. These girls are often completely cut off
from
3"ri sssistance thatthe Philippines Embassy may offer, and as their employers
,rr orequenly 'hgld' their passport, the prospect of travelling to the capital
and has no intention of returning t0 0man to work. "l'm happy n0w, I'm free. I
need to wait for the final decision (from the employer) but I want to go home as
s00n as possible." Until then, she is a hostage of a situation, which can only be
resolved by the very employer she ran away from. And so it goes for countless
others who live their days in fear and hardship, unsure and unknowing that help
is out there.
*Names
have been changed ta prote# the idsntis af nur saurces and lhe ncflrms
in this stary.

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