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X. Saudi Protection Measures and Gaps

I cannot monitor eight million households. There is not anywhere else in the world like this, our society is addicted to cheap labor and workers are desperate to come here.

—Dr. Ghazi al-Qusaibi, minister of labor, Riyadh, December 3, 2006

The Saudi government has a deeply uneven record in responding to abuse against domestic workers. As discussed above in Chapter IV, below, existing labor and immigration policies fail to provide adequate protection and place domestic workers at risk of abuse. Human Rights Watch found that domestic workers seeking assistance often encounter formidable barriers to timely aid or redress. Although a royal decree abolished slavery and the Ministry of Labor’s anti-trafficking decree penalizes agencies involved in exploitative practices by banning them from recruiting workers, Saudi laws do not criminalize forced labor, trafficking, servitude, or slavery.

Saudi Arabia’s human rights obligations require them to take positive measures to protect domestic workers from abuse, exploitation, and situations of forced labor, slavery, or servitude. It also bears specific responsibility to take preventative and remedial measures against gender-based discrimination and violence experienced by migrant female domestic workers.²⁴⁵

Recent reforms and proposals for changes to the labor and immigration laws suggest Saudi Arabia has begun to acknowledge these problems and to improve its response. The Saudi government has created centers for domestic workers who have left their employment, and who in many cases have no passport or exit visa to return home. These centers provide mechanisms to repatriate domestic workers otherwise stranded in the country and to mediate wage disputes with employers. However, many domestic workers had to accept settlements of wages far below the amount owed them by their employer. Furthermore, influential Saudis are often able to bypass or ignore mechanisms set up to assist domestic workers.²⁴⁶

The criminal justice system imposes other barriers: while some domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch received assistance and support from the Saudi police, others encountered hostility and further abuse. Lengthy criminal trials against employers leave domestic workers trapped in embassy shelters for years with no employment, little family contact, and uncertain trial outcomes. These precedents provide little incentive for domestic workers to register cases of abuse with the police.

Human Rights Watch interviewed several Saudi officials who felt that the reporting of abuse against domestic workers is exaggerated and that the problems faced by Saudi employers ignored. Reflecting the opinions of many of the employers we spoke to, one official said, “there is no institution that protects the employer. What about cases of abuse of children by domestic workers or cases of witchcraft?”²⁴⁷ Another official asked, “Who gives the kafil (sponsor) his rights? He pays 6,000-8,000 riyals (US$1,560-2,080) to accept her, and she runs away after being in KSA for one to two months.”²⁴⁸

Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) Center for Domestic Workers

There were no translators there, I couldn’t talk. Whatever the [employers] said, the [police] wrote it down. The police asked for money for the ticket from me. I had no cash to give them…. The police and Baba thought I had money, they said I was lying….  There was another girl in the camp who knows a little bit of Arabic and Sinhala, so she helped me with translation. I said, “If they don’t pay my salary, just pay my ticket.” I asked to be put in another house, but Baba said “I don’t want her to work in another house”; madam also refused. I will forego my salary, I just need a ticket. There is no one to pay for the ticket.

—Latha P., Sri Lankan domestic worker, MOSA processing center, Riyadh, December 15, 2006

The Saudi government and the embassies of labor-sending countries receive thousands of complaints each year from domestic workers who are stranded in the country or who have not received their full wages. These women often do not have their passport or iqama, as their employer retained their documents; they are unable to obtain the required exit visa, since their employer refuses to consent to them leaving the country; and in many cases, they have no money, either because of unpaid wages or because they remitted all their money to meet expenses at home. In many cases, employers and recruitment agents renege on their contractual obligations to pay for these workers’ return tickets, leaving them in a desperate search of funds for their flights home.

In 1997 the Ministry of Social Affairs, in coordination with the Ministries of Labor and Interior, created a center to deal with the high volume of complaints from domestic workers, including those stranded at the airport when their employers failed to pick them up upon arrival.²⁴⁹ The main facility is located in Riyadh and though designed for half as many, typically houses 1,000-1,500 domestic workers.²⁵⁰

The staff at the MOSA shelter, with the support of Saudi police who are deployed to the center from different stations around Riyadh, assist domestic workers by collecting their belongings or identity documents from employers, recovering wages, or facilitating their authorization to leave the country. The MOSA shelter provides much needed services to domestic workers who otherwise have no legal protection or physical shelter on which to rely. Diplomats from labor-sending countries commented that the MOSA shelter has greatly facilitated their ability to deal with domestic workers seeking help to leave the country or secure unpaid wages.

Although the MOSA center provides a useful conduit to assist domestic workers trapped by unreasonable immigration policies, several aspects of its operations raise concern. Domestic workers must often settle for unfair financial settlements and wait for months in the overcrowded shelter with little information about their cases. Some domestic workers reported the police at the MOSA center forced them to return to their employers against their will.

In some cases, MOSA staff fail to screen for physical and sexual abuse and do not provide adequate interpretation when taking statements or informing workers about the status of their cases. Nur A. told Human Rights Watch, “When the employer came to the SSWA [MOSA center], I kept waiting, I didn’t get my four months’ salary. I didn’t say anything about the rape to the police. There was no translator.²⁵¹ Police or labor officials did not always inquire about the incidence of physical or sexual abuse, and domestic workers, often intimidated by their surroundings, did not always volunteer this information without specific questioning. Gina R., who had been beaten by her agent, said, “The police [at the MOSA center] questioned me how many months I stayed with my employer, but they didn’t ask about my agent. They didn’t ask about my injuries because I was wearing an abaya.”²⁵²

As mentioned earlier in the section on “Employment Contracts and Recruitment Practices,” employers should pay for a domestic worker’s ticket home if she was forced to leave her employment early because of mistreatment. In practice this provision is not well-enforced. When employers refuse to pay, domestic workers must find the money themselves, sometimes appealing for funds from relatives at home. In some cases of egregious abuse, the Saudi government, the labor-sending country, or local organizations will donate the money. In other cases, agents provide tickets and resolve cases. ²⁵³ But many times, a domestic worker must reach out to friends and family or agree to work for an additional two to three months for a new employer to raise the necessary funds.

Saudi officials criticized the foreign missions of labor-sending countries for failing to aid their nationals. For example, one official said, “the embassies are trying to get away from assisting these women because they want to avoid the financial burden of deporting them. That is why the Ministry of Social Affairs spends so much money in repatriating women.”²⁵⁴ On the other side, embassy officials assert they dip into funds to buy domestic workers’ tickets home and assist with investigations. One labor attaché said, “We have to use our own vehicles to trace sponsor’s homes….  We provided tickets to 97 ladies in the past few weeks alone.” ²⁵⁵ In addition, he complained that they did not receive information about domestic workers referred directly to the MOSA center instead of via the embassy, saying, “They are still keeping all of their records manually and do not send us information.”²⁵⁶ 

Despite the shortcomings of the center, it is one of only a few ways to leave the country when a domestic worker’s employer has refused to grant her an exit visa. However, admittance is subject to strict health requirements. According to the administrator of the Riyadh shelter, domestic workers cannot have a cold, fever, other sicknesses, or be pregnant.²⁵⁷ These conditions are presumably imposed to prevent the spread of infection in the overcrowded shelters, and in the case of pregnancy, not to accept cases that may involve violations of Saudi law. Many workers and officials from labor-sending countries complained that workers are rejected even when they are not sick.

Long waiting periods and lack of information

For four months I did not get my salary. I don’t have money for a return ticket to Sri Lanka. I have no money. Not only me, but many people don’t have money. Now I have been here for one month. One person worked in Saudi Arabia for four years with no money, she has been in the Olaya camp [MOSA center] for six months.

—Mary J., Sri Lankan domestic worker, MOSA center, Riyadh, December 7, 2006

Long waiting periods in the MOSA center are common, with a domestic worker’s life suspended for two weeks to eight months.²⁵⁸ An official from the Sri Lankan embassy confirmed that some Sri Lankan women had to wait for longer than one year.²⁵⁹ Women interviewed by Human Rights Watch there were typically desperate to leave the facility immediately and return to their countries, but had to wait for indeterminate amounts of time with little means for contacting their embassies or the Saudi authorities handling their cases. The women have committed no crime but are held in de facto detention. (Embassy officials report that in smaller cities with no access to the MOSA center, for example, ‘Ar’ar in the province of al-Jawf, police keep escaped domestic workers with complaints against their employers in jail until their cases are resolved.²⁶⁰)

According to domestic workers in the MOSA center, “The ones who stay for many months are the ones who don’t have money. Some of the maids have to beg for the money, for the amount of the ticket.²⁶¹ One diplomat handling labor cases said, “Even the authorities forget how long she has been waiting. It is not a big deal to them, ok, the employer didn’t come, didn’t pay, but we remind them.”²⁶²

The long stays at the MOSA center may come at the end of long waits at other locations. For example, Human Rights Watch interviewed Thanuja W. who said, “I was at the agency for five months. Then I was at the embassy for three months. I have been here [at the MOSA center] for two months. I always asked my employers for my salary, after two years of working, they still didn’t pay me, they sent me back to the agent.”²⁶³

The indefinite periods of stay in the shelters imposes hardship on domestic workers, particularly since many had experienced trauma, had not received their wages and were desperate to start working again, or were anxious to reunite with their families. Nur A. told us, “I am nervous to go to the SSWA [MOSA shelter], because I know most people who go there spend three or four months there. I am worried if I go to the SSWA I will spend a long time there.”²⁶⁴ Most confronted acute financial pressures and could not afford to spend months without pay.

The MOSA staff do not provide domestic workers in the shelter with adequate information about the shelter or regularly updated information about their situations. In addition, MOSA staff confiscate mobile phones and prevent domestic workers from reaching out to family or making independent calls to consular officials. One detained worker told Human Rights Watch, “One of my friends had a mobile and they took it. I cannot make a telephone call, we can’t call the embassy.”²⁶⁵

With little information about the nature of the MOSA center, their legal status, their rights, and the status of their cases, and with no freedom to leave the locked facilities, many domestic workers believed they were in a women’s prison or detention center. A diplomat from a labor-sending country said, “Many of our girls have complained in our media [upon returning home]. They say the embassy sent us to jail.”²⁶⁶ Human Rights Watch interviewed a returned domestic worker in Sri Lanka, Sepalika S., who had transited through the MOSA center and said,

[T]he police put me in a prison cell where the housemaids who have faced problems stay…. it’s one of their police divisions….  I was locked up … they have rooms for Sri Lankan housemaids, Indonesian housemaids, Filipina, and Nepalese housemaids. They asked me questions like whether I stole anything when I ran away, and they checked my body to see whether I had anything hidden. They asked me why I left that house, whether the Baba is not good, and did I take anything with me when I left.²⁶⁷

Officials from different embassies reported that in early 2008 some domestic workers in the MOSA center grew so frustrated with their long waits and lack of information that they protested, causing minor property damage to the center. The Saudi government imprisoned at least 12 domestic workers for two months for being the leaders of this protest.²⁶⁸

Labor dispute resolution

A major function of the MOSA center is to mediate labor disputes. Since the labor code currently excludes domestic workers, domestic workers do not have clear, enforceable standards on their conditions of work, access to labor courts, or standard complaint mechanisms through the Ministry of Labor.

The availability of police at the MOSA center to track down errant employers, to force them to present themselves to discuss wage disputes, and to pay withheld salaries greatly increases its enforcement capacity.  Human Rights Watch found that the Saudi police were able to help some domestic workers partially or fully resolve their cases. However, we also learned of many cases in which employers refused to come to the MOSA center, and the domestic worker had little choice but to accept her fate and to scramble for money for her ticket home. For example, Indrani P. did not receive her owed wages and had to pay for her ticket home:

Twice the police spoke to my employers. The first day, they said there was no such maid at our house. The second time, no one picked up the phone. In the camp [MOSA center], the person who translated was another housemaid. They asked if I was willing to work in another house, and I refused. They asked if I had cash for a ticket, and I said yes.²⁶⁹

Saudi law provides that in civil cases, domestic workers should receive their payments expeditiously when there are judgments in their favor. Article 199(c) in the second part of the civil procedure code stipulates, “A judgment incorporating a provision for expeditious execution, with or without bond at the discretion of the judge, shall be made in the following circumstances: … (c)If the judgment is for the payment of wages to a servant, craftsman, workman, wet-nurse, or nurse-maid.”²⁷⁰ Domestic workers’ cases rarely reach the courts, but the principle of enforcing timely repayment of wages should be applied to the MOSA center labor dispute resolution mechanism.

The Saudi government has yet to enforce all employers’ compliance and does not consistently pursue employers who simply refuse to respond. For example, Sari L. said, “I don’t know if I’ll get my eight months’ salary…. They called my first employer and we sat together and she said I’ll bring money and she never came again. I have been here for one and-a-half months, the employer is not returning their phone calls anymore.”²⁷¹

Saudi officials denied the extent of unpaid wages and maintained that their courts often favored migrant workers. One official told Human Rights Watch, “The employer tries to give the salary to the domestic worker, but she refuses to take it. She asks the employer to keep it for safekeeping. Then when she asks for her salary, it is difficult for her employer to provide the full amount at once. When she is not provided her salary, she runs away.”²⁷² An official from the Ministry of Labor said, “in the courts, the burden is on the kafil (sponsor) to provide evidence that he paid the salary.”²⁷³

Human Rights Watch documented many cases in which the domestic worker claimed she had not been paid for several months, and the employer either denied the accusation or failed to show up for questioning. Employers also wield great power since, under the kafala system, they control the worker’s ability to transfer to a new employer or obtain an exit visa to return home. This imbalance of power, combined with long waiting periods in the center, the uncertainty of the outcome trying to collect owed wages, and the desperation of many women to return home and be reunited with their families means that final settlements frequently involve domestic workers foregoing their full or partial wages in order to obtain exit visas to leave the country.

According to the Saudi Ministries of Labor and Social Affairs, employers who fail to pay wages may be blacklisted from hiring another domestic worker for five years, and, in egregious or repeat cases, for life.²⁷⁴ Employers do not face any other penalty and domestic workers receive no restitution. When asked whether the Saudi government had plans to institute more substantial penalties against delinquent employers, the officials Human Rights Watch spoke to suggested the current sanctions are sufficient.²⁷⁵ Despite several requests, the Saudi government did not provide Human Rights Watch with updated numbers of employers who have been blacklisted.

On occasion, in high-profile and egregious cases, an individual or organization steps in to assist the woman. In late 2007 Prince Salman, the governor of Riyadh, donated the equivalent of 12 years of salary to Girlie Malika Fernando, a 53-year-old Sri Lankan domestic worker whose employer had not paid her for 13 years and who died before the case was settled.²⁷⁶ Media attention also helped apply pressure in the cases of Reeta Nisanka, a Sri Lankan domestic worker initially paid for only three months out of nine years of work (her employer paid her in full in an “amicable” agreement and received no other punishment), and Anista Marie, a Sri Lankan domestic worker paid for two years out of ten years of work.²⁷⁷ Even in highly publicized cases, there may be little punishment for employers or enforcement of wage settlements. Anista Marie’s employer refused to return her passport and, out of 40,000 riyals ($10,400) owed, only paid 8,500 ($2,210) to Anista Marie before her repatriation, agreeing to send 11,500 riyals ($2,990) to her in Sri Lanka.²⁷⁸ In far too many other cases, the employer gets away with his or her crime completely, and the domestic worker goes home penniless.

The Saudi government has created other checks on the payment of wages, including forms for domestic workers to sign acknowledging monthly receipt of their salaries and asking immigration officials to screen for unpaid wages before a domestic worker’s departure to her home country. However, these measures have yet to be widely implemented.²⁷⁹ Furthermore, domestic workers are generally unaware of these procedures. As one embassy official commented, “The employer has written everything in Arabic, the girl gives her fingerprint, she doesn’t know what it’s for. But she hasn’t gotten her salary.”²⁸⁰ In other cases, domestic workers who may be intimidated by immigration officials, afraid of not getting on their flight, and sometimes instructed by their employers to lie, do not disclose unpaid wages.²⁸¹

Deportation

When domestic workers leave their legal immigration sponsors, whether escaping abusive conditions or seeking better work conditions and pay as undocumented workers, they have two main options for returning to their home countries. The first is to seek assistance from government authorities, either their embassy or the Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs. The second is to go the “backdoor” route of deportation from Jeddah.

The deportation center in Jeddah was originally set up to help repatriate pilgrims who lost their documents or overstayed their trips in Mecca. As their only resort out of the country, migrants often pay bribes to enter the deportation center. Indonesians, who are primarily Muslim, paid the lowest fees, while Sri Lankans and Filipinos had to assume Muslim names and pay higher bribes to enter the facilities. Though Human Rights Watch did not obtain access to the deportation center, interviews with migrants, embassy officials, and Saudi officials indicate the deportation center is extremely overcrowded with poor living conditions.²⁸² According to a news report, there are 8,000 residents in the center, which has a capacity for 5,500.²⁸³

Migrant domestic workers unable to secure exit visas from their sponsors and unable to go through the MOSA center may have no other alternative than to pay a bribe and go to the deportation center to leave the country.²⁸⁴ Those who have left their original employers and have been working as undocumented “freelancers” for several years must typically leave the country through deportation.

According to consular officials in Jeddah, the MOSA center in Riyadh is not open to migrant domestic workers in Jeddah and other western provinces, and these officials struggle to find ways to repatriate domestic workers who have encountered problems with their employers. One consular official told us, “In Riyadh they have the SSWA [MOSA center]. They can endorse the exit visas, they are responsible, but here, no. We are the consulate, giving the call to the employer. There is no reply. There is nowhere to go.”²⁸⁵

In such cases, a domestic worker’s recruitment agent or peers may advise her to raise the money to pay the bribe money to go to the deportation center. For example, Human Rights Watch interviewed one domestic worker in Jeddah whose employer did not authorize her exit visa, and who was weighing her options on how she could return to the Philippines. She said, “Last week my agent …, he said that in my case, Baba doesn’t answer the phone. He said, ‘If you want to go home, go to deportation.’”²⁸⁶ Her agent provided her with a return air ticket. Even domestic workers owed substantial sums of money from their employers may have to resort to this option. Sandra C. told us,

The embassy staff wants to go [to] the house of the employer with a case officer. They owe me 34,000 riyals [$8,840]. Now I want to work for payment so I earn the 500 riyals [$130] for deportation. My mother and father need money, they need me to go home, but my employer didn’t want me to leave….  The embassy tells me that if my employers don’t want to give me my salary, I will have to work one month to earn the deportation fees.²⁸⁷

In Jeddah several domestic workers reported that their embassy informally advised them to return home through the Jeddah deportation center rather than assisting them. For example, Marilou R. said, “I told the case officer that I want to go home. I only need the exit visa. For the ticket, I have friends who will give money….  A case officer told me it is better to go home through deportation. I said, ‘No! I want my salary. I don’t want to go as an illegal, I want to go legally.’”²⁸⁸

In some cases, domestic workers who left their original employers and continued to work in Saudi Arabia independently without full legal status may have children, typically through consensual relations with another migrant worker. These children have no documentation, as their parents must have a valid residency permit for a child to be registered. Both mother and child become effectively trapped in Saudi Arabia as efforts to repatriate or deport them could result in prosecution for adultery. An embassy official said,

We cannot get an exit visa for them because of the issue of immorality. The [Saudi authorities] will put them in jail first….  We have no way to repatriate the child….  The Saudi authorities refuse to concede this problem exists….  There should be an amnesty program for children, and for all the illegals in the country.²⁸⁹

Repatriation of Migrants’ Remains

Why does a dead person need an exit visa?

—Embassy official from a labor-sending country, Riyadh, March 8, 2008

The constraints of the kafala system are particularly evident in the bureaucratic challenges and delays that embassies face in repatriating the remains of migrants who die in Saudi Arabia. When consular officials from labor-sending countries are unable to obtain the consent of the sponsor to approve the exit visa, either because the sponsor refuses or because the sponsor could not be identified, they must approach the governor of the province to clear the administrative hurdles. One embassy official told us, “Without the sponsor’s cooperation, it is hard to send the body back … The main problem is the sponsor has to change and authenticate the documents.” ²⁹⁰ 

Given the volume of migrants in the country, the embassies must often deal with numerous repatriations per month. One official from a labor-sending country said: “We send home an average of 20 bodies a month. Every month it is a problem, usually because of the sponsor. Illegal stayers or runaways usually have to go to the governor. You can imagine how long the line is. For legal migrants, it typically takes three weeks to one month to repatriate the remains; for an illegal migrant, it could take months.”²⁹¹

Human Rights Watch interviewed diplomats who have struggled for up to a year to repatriate remains. For example, it took a year to send the body of a Sri Lankan domestic worker whose medical reports suggest she died from malnutrition and tuberculosis, and who was not paid for the entire five years of her employment. The employer was arrested and paid part of the owed wages to her family, but they could not repatriate the body until the financial settlement was cleared.²⁹² In another case, an official from the Indonesian embassy said, “We have a case of a lady who died six months ago….  We could not find the sponsor. We got permission from the governor [of Riyadh to get her exit visa] but the civil registration will not give us a certificate without her passport or iqama.”²⁹³

At other times, the Saudi authorities handling the case are slow, uncooperative, or demand kickbacks. One embassy official told us, “If the sponsor is not available, then the police can do it. They have been reluctant, when we talk to them, they say ‘inshallah, inshallah’ (God willing). [They expect us] to give some riyals or the ‘whiskey quota’ [diplomats in Saudi Arabia may bring in a quota of alcohol].”²⁹⁴

The Criminal Justice System

I want to go home. To go home, they said I have to drop the charges [against my employer]. I have been sitting here for eight months already. I have been sitting here, with no money and no job. If I return back home, my body has been beaten, I am without money, that is what makes me sad....  If it is my luck, it will be [my employers will get punished and I will get compensation]. Otherwise, I will accept my fate. I told my husband already and he said to let Allah punish my employer.

—Mina S., Indonesian domestic worker whose employer beat her, deprived her of food, and failed to pay any salary, Riyadh, March 12, 2008

Under international human rights law, and specifically flowing from treaties that Saudi Arabia has become a party to, it has a clear legal obligation to ensure that there are effective penalties, including criminal sanctions, both on the books and in practice, for anyone who engages in or is complicit in all forms of forced labor and servitude, and abuse amounting to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment.²⁹⁵

Cases of police mistreatment and abuse

Domestic workers reported mixed experiences in obtaining assistance from the police. Some domestic workers received aid and referrals from the police that enabled them to leave abusive employers and then seek assistance at the Ministry of Social Affairs shelter or their embassy. In other cases, however, police officers refused to believe domestic workers’ accounts, forcibly sent them back to their employers, or did not take proper measures to ensure their safety.

Several officials from labor-sending countries said that cooperation with police has improved, for example, in arranging rescues from workplaces where domestic workers are confined. However, this level of cooperation is not consistent and embassy officials may need to overcome bureaucratic hurdles. One official commented, “Sometimes we will get information from a housemaid illegally put in a house. We will talk to the police, but they need a letter from the governor, otherwise [they will not go to the house] they will just call.”²⁹⁶

In other cases, police are negligent in their response to cases of abuse. Ponnamma S. described to Human Rights Watch her experience of approaching the police after escaping from her employers:

A senior officer came. I complained about the marks. I complained that Baba had beaten me up. Baba claimed that he was not there at the time. Then they asked if Baba paid me. I said, “For one-and-a-half years I have not been paid.” I refused to go back to Baba. I insisted to go to the embassy house…. The police told Baba to drop me at the embassy, but he took me back to the house…. The lady beat me really badly. She told me, “Anywhere you go in Saudi Arabia, they’ll return you back here. Even if we kill you, the police won’t say anything to us. If you hadn’t run, we would have killed you and thrown you in the trash.”²⁹⁷

In a few cases, domestic workers reported sexual harassment or sexual assault committed by a police officer. Sri H. told us, “Once I went to the police. I called 999 [emergency number for the police]. What happened is that the police asked me to go out with him and have sex with him.”²⁹⁸  Dian W. had run away from her employer and was trying to get entry to the MOSA center. She told us, “The police officer said, ‘Wait, if you want a letter from the police and the chance to sleep at the shelter, you should sleep with me and tomorrow you can enter the shelter.’”²⁹⁹

When Chemmani R. approached a police officer after escaping from her employer, a police officer took her to an isolated area and raped her.³⁰⁰ When he stopped the car and got out to buy water, she grabbed his driver’s license and ran out. She said, “When I went to the police station, they told me, ‘You are a housemaid, you are from Sri Lanka; he is from this country, he is a wealthy man, you can’t argue with him, it’s better that you go back to your country.’” The police then transferred Chemmani R. to the deportation center with no opportunity to pursue her case. ³⁰¹

Many of the officials from foreign missions of labor-sending countries who support workers with criminal cases complained about the lack of systems and competence among the Saudi police. For example, if a police officer gets transferred, “They leave no file of the case. The new officer tells you to call the previous police officer.” ³⁰² These officials also cited the need for a special desk in each police station to handle sexual violence cases.

Flawed investigations and protracted criminal proceedings

I haven’t seen any rape case [that] has prospered to the point of conviction. Most cases are never able to be prosecuted.

—Embassy official B, who monitored all criminal cases for a labor-sending country for the past few years, Riyadh, March 8, 2008

In most cases we are settling for financial settlements. The domestic workers cannot withstand the rigors of trial, the long waiting periods, it takes nine months, a year. The court process is very slow.

—Consular official E from a labor-sending country, Jeddah, December 9, 2006

Inadequate investigation and collection of evidence in cases where employers or an agent has abused a domestic worker adversely affects the strength of their case. Human Rights Watch learned of cases where Saudi authorities refused to mandate paternity tests for Saudi men and boys accused of raping domestic workers who bore children as a result. A domestic worker raped by her employer and five months pregnant attempted to file a complaint with the police, but “they refused to register the case and forwarded her to the [MOSA] shelter. [To gain admission] they didn’t write that she was pregnant.”³⁰³

In many cases, domestic workers are not able to pursue criminal charges against an abusive employer or agent due to pressure from the Saudi authorities or insufficient evidence. With the assistance of their embassy, they may be able to get an out-of-court financial settlement, but in other cases they go home with nothing. Domestic workers are often only able to escape from their employer’s home several days or weeks after the incident of violence occurred. In such cases, they are required to file a police report before they can undergo a forensic exam for any remaining evidence.³⁰⁴ This requirement presents further delays, especially as they must return to the police of the jurisdiction where the crime was committed. An officer from a labor-sending country dealing with such cases noted, “One of the problems is that the domestic worker does not know where she lives. She is a virtual prisoner, she doesn’t know where to bring us.”³⁰⁵

For those cases that go to trial, domestic workers must endure months or years of waiting for the proceedings to conclude. They typically wait in overcrowded shelters at their embassies, unable to work, unable to leave the embassy grounds, and in limited or no communication with their families at home. Even after such long waits, the outcome may not be in their favor, as in the case of Haima G., profiled in the trafficking section of this report. A lawyer for the Indonesian embassy said approximately 60 percent of cases result in convictions.³⁰⁶

Human Rights Watch interviewed a Sri Lankan domestic worker, Chamali W., who had been raped by her employer’s son. She said,

They examined me and proved that I was raped, but not pregnant. Since then, I haven’t stepped into a court at all….  The police have not given me any more information. I ask every two months. For the last six months, I have been staying here [at the embassy shelter]. I’ve taken a loan of 50,000 rupees [in Sri Lanka] with interest. My husband has no job, my father is sick. My husband’s mother is taking care of my child. I am not able to go back to Sri Lanka because the police case is still going on….  I’m clueless about what people are doing, about whether my employer’s son in jail. I have to go back home and pay my debt. If I left now and worked, I could do something about it…. I have wasted six months.³⁰⁷

If the verdict after a lengthy proceeding does favor the domestic worker, she must then be prepared for another wait if the convicted files an appeal. An officer from a labor-sending country working in Saudi Arabia for several years said, “I recall only one rape case in [the] Eastern Province [in 2007] that was a successful conviction.” However this case was appealed, and the domestic worker could not wait any longer, dropped the case, and went home.³⁰⁸ Several embassy officials recommended that they be able to designate an attorney to represent the woman after the trial so that she can return home while awaiting the final verdict. “She has to stay for at least a year. She will want to go home and the crime goes unpunished. The locals know that time is on their side.”³⁰⁹

Given the lengthy waiting periods and the nature of the Saudi justice system, many officials from foreign missions and their legal advisors pursue financial settlements for abused domestic workers.³¹⁰ Embassy officials felt they have few options given the restrictive immigration framework, their lack of enforcement power over employers, and domestic workers’ own desires to return home quickly. “What course of action does she want to take, it is her choice, not the embassy’s. If she doesn’t want to file a case, go home and get a financial settlement, we emphasize it is her decision. We are obliged to tell her of our previous experiences. How long it takes, where she will stay – in the women’s center, that she can’t go out or work. They can’t work but need to support their families.”³¹¹