As making a living and supporting one’s self and family
becomes more and more challenging in Ethiopia, women go to great measures
seeking employment abroad. Without any
knowledge of the country, women, fearing the alternative, are confident and
eager to be domestic workers in places like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, writes
EDEN SAHLE,
Medina Yalelet, in her late teens, came all the way from
Lalibela town, 642Km away from Addis Abeba in the Amhara Regional State, six
months ago planning to go to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic worker.
Although she has no formal education, she has heard that the
pay is good and she is confident that she will be able to manage the
communication gap and work there. However, despite her confidence, she only
knows three words of Arabic.
She heard about the employment opportunity and the lucrative
pay two years ago from an agent of one of the agencies involved in sending
migrant workers to the Middle East. At the time, she was working as a daily
labourer earning 15 Br a day. The income supported her family, parents, two
younger brothers and a sister, in addition to the income they get farming on
the half a hectare of land they own.
However, Medina says she did not hesitate to make up her
mind when she heard that she could get 180 dollars a month, which the Ministry
of Labour & Social Affairs (MoLSA) has set as the minimum wage recruitment
agencies have to offer domestic workers travelling abroad.
This is not the only requirement that the 135 recruitment
agencies registered with the Ministry have to fulfil to be able to facilitate
and send workers to the Middle East. Due to the complaints of abuse of domestic
workers who have gone to these countries, the Ministry has put forth a set of
stringent rules on them.
Agencies which plan to recruit 500 people have to deposit
30,000 dollars with the Ministry while those planning to recruit 1,000 people
have to deposit 50,000 dollars. This money is to be used to bring back
employees who are injured or have died while abroad, according to the
employment exchange service proclamation of 2009. This is to make the agencies
accountable to whatever harm and complaints that come to the employees, states
the proclamation.
Indeed, a few years back, there were a lot of women coming
back from these countries with stories of physical abuse and denial of pay for
the services they had provided.
Despite the horror stories that have been published in many
newspapers and talked about around town, the number of women looking to work
abroad does not seem to be decreasing.
One simply needs to go to the Labour Ministry to see the
amount of people looking for employment in Middle Eastern countries, standing
in long queues, waiting to get their employment approved.
There were 15,323 Ethiopians employed abroad in the period
between July 8, 2009 and July 8, 2010, a majority of whom, 86.9pc, were female,
according to the Labour Market Information (LMI) bulleting for 2009/10
published by the Ministry. According to the bulletin, these employees
originated largely from Addis Abeba, 49pc, while those from Oromia and Amhara
Regional States followed with 19.6 and 14.6pc, respectively.
Medina only speaks three words of Arabic and plans to move
Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker.
The bulletin identified Kuwait as the most popular
employment destination with 72pc of the total going there. Out of this 72pc,
only 435 were male. The second major destination was Saudi Arabia with 23pc.
This data also shows that 90pc of those who were placed
abroad were mainly employed in domestic work, which is what the majority of the
people you see queued up at the Ministry are hoping for.
In the process of her application, Medina was shown an
orientation video illustrating what to expect in the work place and
environment.
The video shows types of appliances used in the kitchen and
home as well as how to operate them. It also includes what types of food they
are expected to prepare. Despite never having used the appliances or the foods
shown in the video, Medina was not worried, saying she will learn quickly.
"I am really impressed with the country," Medina,
who could not contain her excitement, told Fortune. "I can learn the
language quickly."
However, getting used to the language is not as easy as one
expects, according to Frehiwot Asseged, who has worked in Saudi Arabia as a
domestic worker.
"It did not take me that long to learn the recipes of
the foods there and the operation of the equipments," she told Fortune.
"But the language took me more than a year to learn."
However, many of the would-be employees who had watched the
orientation video along with Medina did not hide the fact that they barely
understood the explanation on the equipments they were expected to operate.
They seemed at a loss about how to get about getting information on the
application process and so forth within the compound of the Ministry, let alone
grasp what life abroad would be like.
They lounged outside the offices during lunch hours, talking
among themselves while waiting. Announcements were heard, telling people to be
careful with their belongings and be careful of people trying to take advantage
of them.
Cluelessness and ignorance was not the only thing these
individuals had in common, they could barely contain their excitement and
eagerness to get there.
For Medina this is a dream that has been in the making for
two years since she heard about the opportunity. She had saved close to 1,526
Br in that time. When Fortune talked to her two weeks ago, Medina has been in
Addis for six months processing paperwork for her departure.
Expenses for air tickets, insurance, visa application,
residence and work permits are to be paid by employers, while the placement
agencies are expected to cover the cost of health checkups and passport
issuances, according to the Ministry. However, Medina says she had to pay 605
Br to procure an insurance policy and 350 Br to get her passport.
During the time it took her to process her passport, Medina,
like many others with nowhere to stay in Addis, spent her nights around Sidest
Kilo paying two Birr a night, eating one meal a day. Nonetheless, despite
spending as little money as possible, the money Medina brought with her from
Lalibella was not enough to last her the six months she stayed in Addis
processing her application.
"I do odd jobs that do not take up most of my day to
make some money," she told Fortune. "I bake injera for people or wash
clothes."
This is a sacrifice Medina says she is willing to make to
get to Saudi Arabia and earn a decent wage to help herself and her family.
"It is a better salary than I would get as a full time
domestic worker in Addis," Medina told Fortune.
Aynalem Daniel, a working mother of three is none too close
to this reality having lost five maids, who left their jobs pursuing the same
dream as Medina, during a three month period.
She was in Megenagna on October 12, 2011, dealing with a
broker to hire a new maid.
"It has become very difficult to find or retain a maid
these days," Aynalem, who was paying a broker 20pc of the 500 Br monthly
wages she had negotiated, she told Fortune. "It has become so expensive to
have a maid."
The desire to go abroad as a domestic worker seems to be so
high that women would do anything to get there. Many change their name to one
sounding similar to those in the countries they want to go to and lie about
their age. This is true for Medina as well.
"This is not the name my parents gave me," she
told Fortune.
Along with changing her name when she was applying for her
passport, she also filled in her age as 24. For her, anything goes to make it
to Saudi Arabia, without pausing to consider what difficulties she may face
once she gets there.
Nevertheless, the Ministry holds placement agencies
responsible for those things. They are required to submit reports to the
Ministry every three months on the status of the employees they place until the
contract is over, according to Basazen Derbe, senior expert in the public
relations and communication directorate of the Ministry.
Looking at the number of women who visit the Ministry on a
daily basis, it is easy to see that business is lucrative for the agencies. They
charge 500 dollars from employers looking for domestic workers, according to an
employee of one of the agencies who requested anonymity.
Their business is bound to increase in light of the recent
ban by Saudi Arabia on migrant domestic workers from the Philippines and
Indonesia. In a move to fill the gap that has been left, Saudi Arabia has
turned to Ethiopia as its source of domestic workers. It hosts around 1.5
million migrant workers, according to a Human Rights Watch report published
last year.
After having spent half a year trying to secure the job in
Saudi Arabia, Medina has passed her last hurdle and will soon be joining the
1.5 million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. On Thursday, October 20, 2011, she
told Fortune over the phone that all her processing has been completed.
Medina, after having dreamed of this for two and a half
years, now looks forward to her departure to Saudi Arabia, a country she has
only been exposed to for about an hour through video footage and a language she
doesn't speak, in 20 days.
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