There is an underground business that people knowingly or unknowingly are encouraging. It may seem strange but that is what is happening. The issue at hand is the employment of runaway housemaids. Many people are complaining to police.
Despite breaking the rule of the land, runaway maids are employed by others affording them double or triple the salary they agreed with their first sponsors, sometimes as high as BD150-200 monthly. This practice no doubt encourages other decent working maids to run away. Those sponsors both citizens and residents who employ runaway maids are aggravating the situation. How do they employ them without verifying their identity and criminal record, if any?
Currently, maids come here under agreement to earn a monthly salary of between BD80-100 depending on their nationality and experience. So apart from the legal issue, those people employing illegal maids are disrupting the market and creating economic hardship for middle-class families who cannot afford to pay high salaries.
According to sources, the illegal business involves a group of people. There are those who pick maids from the front doors of their sponsor’s houses, transport them to ‘places of stay’. Then comes the match-maker who takes them to a new employer. All costs money. The maid and the sponsor pay.
The maid happily works while her file sits in a police station. The original sponsor has to visit police stations spending precious time coming and going, with visits to the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) to issue another visa. The vicious cycle continues, not to mention financial losses incurred.
Authorities should deal with this issue, and those that employ runaway housemaids should stop the illegal practice. Legal avenues are available to employ housemaids.
So why go illegal and break the rules at the expense of other people’s money and visa?
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