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. 

In Saudi Arabia, where more than 1 million maids from Africa and Asia are employed, maids committing suicide in desperation are regularly reported in the local media. Others are often accused of abusing children and old people in their care, or even bewitching their employers. These incidents are no longer isolated cases. Saudi women intellectuals and novelists have focused in their fiction on the plight of the domestic worker and its predecessor the slave/concubine. Novelist Omaima al-Khamis narrated their life history in superb fiction and continues to highlight their plight on social networking media.  

Given the frequency of abuse cases, it seems that this has become a trend that is difficult to halt despite half-hearted efforts to regulate the legal status of such workers, initiated by the Council of Ministers on previous occasions. The last announcement was made on July 17 when a new law to protect domestic workers was passed. Minister of Labor Adel Al-Faqih explained that the law aims to regulate the relationship between employers and domestic workers, protect the rights of both, and fix the conditions under which such workers are expected to perform their duties. The law is hailed in the press as a historical step towards ameliorating domestic work conditions.