Runaway maids must bear expenses of their return: Recruitment agents

Published: 7 December 2024

NT Bureau
Doha

Lawyers and recruitment agency owners have called for the necessity of obligating runaway maids to bear the costs of their return tickets to their countries, stressing that this measure will contribute significantly to reducing the phenomenon of escape, Al Sharq reports.

Recruitment agencies said cases of runaway maids have recently increased and caused losses to the sponsors and the owners of recruitment offices alike.

They explained in statements to Asharq that the current law requires recruitment offices or the sponsor to bear the cost of the runaway maid’s travel ticket upon her arrest, which means that the maid’s escape without justification does not entail any legal responsibility, even if she is arrested years later.

They added that this causes significant financial losses to sponsors, as the maid who violates the laws is not obligated to bear any expenses. They stressed the importance of establishing a clear mechanism or adding a clause in employment contracts that stipulates that the runaway or law-violating maid is obligated to bear the costs of her return, with stricter penalties on runaway domestic workers and those who provide them with shelter or alternative job opportunities, whether they are individuals or companies.

They stressed the need to issue a law obligating a worker who terminates his employment contract without legal reasons or absconds from work to bear the cost of the return ticket. They also suggested establishing a legal fund in which the cost of the return ticket would be deposited from the worker’s salary, to be recovered when the contract is legally terminated or after its expiration.

“The cost of this ticket may sometimes reach 4,000 riyals during peak travel times, and in this case, the sponsor suffers great harm, and the maid must be obligated to pay the cost of this ticket,” Mohammed Mubarak Al-Mahendi, owner of a manpower recruitment office, told the daily.