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Maid in Saudi Arabia

Human trafficking and abuse of domestic workers continue in the kingdom.
Indonesian workers ready to fly to Saudi Arabia to work as maids wait at a shelter during a police inspection in Bekasi, Indonesia's West Java province, June 22, 2011.  Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono decide to apply a moratorium on sending Indonesian workers to Saudi Arabia be effect on August 1 after a 54-year-old Indonesian maid was beheaded on Saturday, convicted of murdering her Saudi employer, Yudhoyono said on Thursday on a live TV broadcast. Picture taken June 22, 2011.   REUTERS/Sulth
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The plight of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia came to the forefront once again with the news of a 30-year-old Kenyan woman who escaped her employer’s mansion in Orange County in July 2013 to tell a familiar story.

The wife of a Saudi prince, Mishael al-Ayban, was accused of human trafficking. She was released on bail after $5 million was paid. The Kenyan domestic worker was reportedly held against her will, had her passport confiscated, worked longer hours and was paid less than agreed. In 2006, Humaidan al-Turki was sentenced to 28 years in a Colorado prison for abusing and sexually assaulting his maid. In London, a Saudi prince killed his manservant in a five-star hotel. He got life imprisonment and, after signing a prisoners exchange treaty with Saudi Arabia, Britain returned the prince to Riyadh in 2012. 

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