Abuse of BD female domestic workers endemic in KSA  

Bibi Rahima and two other female domestic workers were sitting under the flyover at Batha in the capital city Riyadh waiting to catch the attention of the Saudi law enforcing agencies that would expedite their return to Bangladesh.
Bibi Rahima said as many as three middlemen sold her three times to different employers in Saudi Arabia. She fled from the last one and wanted to return home, even if empty-handed, after eight gruelling months. She hails from Bhola.
Rahima is barely able to walk as her employer beat her up with a rolling pin and fractured her leg," the 40-year-old woman told the Daily Observer.
Another female domestic worker Santi said, "My female employer would beat me up over trifles and was never paid full wages." She also fled from her employer in Saudi Arabia.  The wage of 1,000 Saudi riyals for two years seemed attractive to her poor family in Chandpur.
Rights groups say thousands of migrant workers in Gulf countries, mostly working as domestic help, are at risk of bad working conditions and physical and sexual assault.
Twenty-four Bangladeshi female domestic workers have been rescued by the initiative of the Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi Arabia from the city Arar.
Saudi Recruiting      Agency Maktab Tawasul Alsari illegally detained the female workers for a long time without sending them to work at the homes of the Saudi employers, reads a press release from the embassy on October 25.
On information, Bangladesh Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Dr Mohammad Javed Patwari directed the labour welfare wing of the embassy to rescue them.
The workers were later handed over to the Saudi Female Deportation Centre with the help of Saudi law enforcers.
A case has been filed against the accused Saudi recruiting agency and their agency has been closed, it added.
Moreover, the government is negotiating with the Saudi authorities to set the monthly minimum wage at Saudi Riyal 1,500, he further said.
According to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, Saudi Arabia employed 4.49 lakh Bangladeshi female migrants between 1991 and July this year.