‘We lie on the floor till someone buys us’: shocking allegations of UAE agencies’ abuse of domestic workers
Women seeking jobs as domestic workers in the UAE allege they are being detained and abused in squalid accommodation, while recruiters sell them over apps and social media platforms to household employers, according to interviews and documents seen by the Guardian...
The women’s testimony gives a rare insight into what life is like in domestic worker agency accommodation as migrants wait, in limbo, for an employer to take them on...
UAE recruitment agencies routinely advertise the women they are holding for sale online. The Guardian has located dozens of these adverts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, where women’s photos are displayed, alongside their personal information, where prospective buyers leave comments on the pages and inquire about prices...
Maids.cc, a licensed recruitment agency, has an app and website from where people can select, order and pay for a maid without even meeting her first...
The monthly prices users pay per maid are according to race, the website states – with employers charged less for the services of a black maid. “Filipinas AED3,500 ($952)/month” and “Africans AED2,700 ($735)/month,” it states, but does not disclose the amount of the payment that is actually received by the maid in salary...
Separately, another agency, Leadership Tadbeer (sometimes known as Tadbeer WTC), in Abu Dhabi, advertises maids on TikTok and Instagram. On Instagram, the women advertised are from Indonesia, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. Their services are being sold for between AED1,100 and AED1,400 a month...
A spokesperson for Leadership Tadbeer said: “Regarding the issue you highlighted, here in the UAE our minister of human resources has organised the relationship between the sponsor, worker and agents.
“Regarding the salary, don’t forget there is also free accommodation, free food, free personal staff, phone allowance and good health insurance. You can see here in UAE, more than 200 nationalities live together safely. Everyone here respects each other.”
Meanwhile, the Dubai-based Al Forsan Tadbeer agency adverts on Instagram and Facebook list the maid’s names, ages, marital status, passport number, nationality, number of children and weight, and describe their “complexion” in terms such as “fair”, “black”, etc, alongside their photographs...
Maids.cc and Al Forsan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.