Indian maid denied salary for years awaits final exit

Riyadh: An Indian housemaid who has not been paid for six years by her employer in Riyadh is still awaiting her salary in arrears and a final exit home. Shamsumma, a native from Kollam district in the south Indian state of Kerala, was brought to the Kingdom about six years ago by a recruitment agency in Umm Al-Hammam area, and was later handed over to a Saudi family as a domestic help.

According to Shamsumma, the recruitment agency fixed her monthly wage at SR900 but this was cut down to SR700. She said that she received payments for four months only and later the employer refused to pay any more wages.

“I was paid for only four months and then suddenly they stopped paying my monthly wage,” she said. She also said that she wasn’t allowed to speak to or contact anyone. However, two months earlier, she managed to get in touch with a compatriot, a native from Kerala named Jamal who works in Riyadh and he advised her to call her family back home to send a request to the Indian Embassy to lodge a formal complaint.

“My family followed Jamal’s advice and with the help of the Riyadh police, the Indian Embassy succeeded in tracing my whereabouts,” Shamsumma said. Speaking to Arab News, J. K. Dalapati, community welfare attache, Indian Embassy said on Sunday, “We contacted the employer and reached his place to solve the matter.” 

Dalapati said that the employer had agreed to pay SR33,000 and make the arrangements for her air ticket and final exit. He had further asked for a three-week period in order to make these arrangements, the attaché said.

He said that Shamsumma has been taken from the employer’s house and is currently staying at the government’s housemaid welfare center here. However, despite the lapse of three weeks, the employer has failed to make good on his promise, the welfare attaché said. Dalapati assured that the embassy is following up the matter and Shamsumma will soon go back home with her dues.