Kenya and Saudi Arabia – the most vulnerable and corruption
An area where not much is written about is corruption and the vulnerable, specifically women. In an investigative article in The New York Times they describe a group of Kenyan women who go to Saudi Arabia as domestic workers. The expectation would be that the Saudi government would protect them and if not, then their home governments would want to ensure their safety. Unfortunately, neither situation is the case, and to show how corruption works in this area, where vulnerable women not only do not receive support, but are taken advantage of by both governments. This article notes that “Members of the Saudi royal family are major investors in agencies that place domestic workers. Politicians and their relatives in Uganda and Kenya own staffing agencies, too.” This includes people who are senior members of the government who work in labor ministries, who should be investigating the death of their citizens in other countries who are hired by local staffing agencies. Last year 55 Kenyan workers died last year, twice as many as the previous year, while 274 died over five years, which considering the population is young and healthy is shocking.
Why should we care and what should be done? This is an important area, exploitation of vulnerable populations, specifically domestic workers, which is rarely reported on. It is easy to state that this may be difficult to regulate, but this article describes how the Philippines does protect their citizens in Saudi Arabia, by negotiating monthly minimum wage, providing access to bank accounts and a promise that workers’ passports would not be confiscated. And, with such protections, the Saudis value Philippine workers, knowing that their government will safeguard them. These types of safeguards provide security for the most vulnerable, even if the host government is corrupt, not protecting the workers through labor laws, but making money through unscrupulous staffing agencies. What is important is that there are CSOs which monitor these actions and in conjunction with media outlets, continue to report. Without information from reputable sources these types of issues tend to be overlooked, as the victims are poor African women, and we are thankful for articles such as these.
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