"Migrant Domestic Workers in Oman: A Lost Population", 07 Dec 2022

Fatmata left her home in Sierra Leone in February of 2020, packing her bags for the Sultanate of Oman in hopes of securing “a better means of survival” for her and her family. She expected to find work as a supermarket attendant and earn a salary of roughly $450 dollars a month. Yet, when she arrived in Oman, Fatmata was told she was to serve as a domestic worker for two years and would receive a mere 40 percent of the wages she was initially promised...

Female migrant domestic workers are left particularly vulnerable. It’s common practice for employers to force domestic workers to toil in tortuous conditions, and migrant domestic workers are often the victims of sexual abuse...

For starters, Oman should ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families..

The next step Oman can take after implementing the convention is amending its labor laws to include migrant domestic workers...

In addition, Oman ought to bury the kafala system. Domestic workers should be allowed to end their employment contracts at any time without having to provide a reason...