ABU DHABI // The Nepalese embassy has called for a clampdown on illegal employment agencies that force women as young as 18 to work as housemaids.
The women are lured to the UAE with the promise of a job and then forced into domestic work against their will, the Nepalese ambassador to the UAE said.
Dhananjay Jha said if the practice continued he would ask Nepal to stop sending women to the Arabian Gulf.
Nepal banned recruiting women under 30 to work as maids in 2012. But agents in Nepal and the UAE are allegedly using forged papers to evade the ban.
“Our government does not allow those below 30 years to work as a housemaid, but when they enter here, they enter on a housemaid visa,” Mr Jha said.
The mission has eight women at its shelter who fled because they said they were forced into jobs for which they did not sign up.
The embassy sent home 90 and 100 women in 2011 and 2012, but last year it was between three and five women a week.
Women arriving at the embassy for assistance complain about being underpaid, not being paid or being told to do a different job.
Cleaners, beauty salon workers or administrative office workers can end up being compelled into domestic work, Mr Jha said.
Most of those being sheltered by the embassy are aged between 18 and 25.
“I am monitoring the situation,” Mr Jha said. “If it remains the same I could write to our government and ask them to stop sending females to this region.
“That would be a big step but it is for the protection of our people’s rights and to provide them with a safe working environment abroad.”
No recruitment agency is registered with the mission, but last year a number of fake Nepalese agents were arrested and jailed.
“Sometimes they directly contact their sources in Nepal and sometimes they come through us. Then we ask them to produce their licence,” Mr Jha said.
“A number of them were arrested last year and sent to jail.”
He wants officials to do more to stop the exploitation and try harder to ensure those working in the UAE are in the jobs for which they signed up.
The embassy has fixed housemaids’ pay at Dh900 a month, but many of those it has dealt with were paid only Dh800 or Dh700.
“Sometimes they are not paid a single penny for months. Some worked for six months without any salary,” Mr Jha said.
R P, 20, who stayed at the embassy's shelter last year, said: "The agent sent me here on a cleaner's visa but when I came here I figured out my visa was a housemaid's and the agent forced me to work as a housemaid."
H A, 25, said: “My cousin brought me to Dubai on a visit visa in July last year and sent me to a family’s house to work as a housemaid.
“I said that I didn’t want to work and wanted to go home but they took my visa against my will.
“I was given no time to sleep so I fled after two months.”
anwar@thenational.ae