Protect Kenyans Working in Saudi Arabia

The saddest take away about the story of Diana Chepkemoi, the university student rescued from Saudi Arabia, is that it is not an isolated case of suffering. Diana’s grotesque odyssey is, as she herself confessed, ‘only a tip of the iceberg’. It is disheartening to note that most stories of women and girls who have been repatriated back from the gulf country are the exception rather than the norm. According to a tweet by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kenyans have been warned against sending ‘this category of workers’ to Saudi Arabia but they have chosen not to listen. Can this be construed to mean that they are on their own if they find themselves enslaved by cruel employers in Saudi Arabia? That Kenyans are to blame for choosing to look for ways of fending for themselves and their families away from the vicissitudes of rife unemployment in Kenya?

In 2019, the Departmental Committee on Labor and Social Welfare is said to have traveled to Riyadh on a ‘fact-finding mission on the welfare of migrant workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’. One of their recommendations was a more thorough process of vetting the employment agencies to weed out rogue ones sending Kenyans to slavery.

During a meeting in 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that 90 Kenyans died in Saudi Arabia between 2019-2021. The reported distress calls during the same period were 1908.

As at 2021, Kenyans were sending back KES 330 billion annually in remittances, the third biggest labor migration remittances in Africa. They deserve to be protected.

Labor migration due to unemployment in Kenya has resulted in hundreds of women and girls seeking greener pastures in Saudi Arabia where they are employed in private homes/households. Despite their vital role, they are among the most abused and exploited workers. They work long hours for wages far below the minimum rate and some suffer physical and sexual violence in the hands of their employers. It's so sad and disheartening that this is happening in full glare of the government and the world, some are even brought home as corpses, cases of Caroline Aluoch and Beatrice Waruguru who came back in caskets. Their desperate calls for assistance to the embassies and the recruitment agents has landed on deaf ears.

Despite the public outcry, no meaningful results have been achieved in ensuring security for Kenyans working in Saudi Arabia.

Please sign this petition to join me in calling for Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, Departmental Committee on Labor and Social Welfare, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kenya Embassy, Riyadh, Central Organization of Trade Union (COTU), Office of the Ombudsman and the relevant government agencies and duty bearers to;

• Speed up the process of securing a safe house in Saudi Arabia that can house the women and girls who are suffering in the hands of their employers.
• Speed up the process of tracing, mapping out and reporting back to Kenya the details of the Kenyans suffering abroad in the hands of their employers and the plans to bring them back to safety.
• Make it mandatory for all private recruiting agents to register with the National Employment Authority, put in place stringent measures to cub illegal immigration to the middle east and start prosecuting the agents that are operating illegally and without proper protection mechanism putting Kenyans at risks.
• Put in place measures to ensure that the Kenyan Embassies in the Middle East are held accountable and responsible for the suffering of the Kenyans in these countries.
• To carry out a comprehensive audit of the violations meted on domestic workers, unfair labor practices and crimes against workers in Saudi Arabia.
• To evaluate and review the existing legislation, regulations, policies and Bilateral Agreements on employment of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia with a view of promoting fair labor practices and protection of migrant workers.
• To evaluate and map out appropriate pre-departure training of domestic workers that will prepare them for their work environment as well as how to cope with cultural dynamics.
• To analyze and determine the operations of the KAFALA System utilized by recruitment agencies and its effect on the individual contractual agreement of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia with a view of providing an alternative that would sustainably guarantee a ‘win-win’ situation for all parties involved.
• To review and recommend suitable dispute resolution mechanisms among the domestic workers, the employers and the recruitment agents.
• To determine the administrative, structural and budgetary gaps in the labor export industry, particularly in destinations that have a considerable number of Kenyans working there; and
• To make recommendations on the long term and short-term strategies to deal with the mistreatment and abuse of Kenya domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

Petitioners are Janet Sein and Women Human Right Defenders Hub