Through Application Programs, KSA Sells and Exports Women

Through a black market on Instagram, an American report by Washington Post revealed the recruitment of women to work as maids in the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia, without respecting their human rights; these women are exposed to exploitation, abuse, and humiliation.

The report also mentioned how illegal agents took advantage of Instagram, to appoint these women to jobs that do not even include the basic employment rights, and safe working conditions.

In recent years, Mohammed bin Salman has tried to improve Saudi women's situations, allowing them to work and drive cars in an attempt to modernize The Saudi lifestyle. On the other hand, women maids, who are exploited and sold on Instagram, were treated as "prisoners" in the same modernized country, as they are forced to work long and exhausting hours for very low wages.

As Prisoners

The Washington Post revealed that in recent years, Instagram has helped create an international black market for migrant workers, especially women in Africa and Asia who are sold as maids in the Arab Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia.

Because of their miserable life conditions, these women accepted to be sold as maids on Instagram to improve their families’ conditions as they are promised to be well paid. To work in rich countries like Saudi Arabia, for them, is a dream, so without thinking much about work contracts, women job seekers accept to give their passports to illegal agents and take the way to Saudi Arabia.

According to BBC NEWS, some of these women said that they don’t have any information about the families they will be working with. They are immediately asked to carry their stuff, then handed over to a driver to take them to the unknown house.

Some others are surprised by finding themselves locked in a very narrow room for weeks, sleeping on the floor and waiting to be sold on Instagram, according to the same source.

More than 200 similar accounts on Instagram, as networks to buy and sell women as maids in countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

This illegal method exposes women to abuse, injustice and humiliation, without the ability to go to their embassies because of their illegal situations.

Women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, Rothna Begum said that “women who are recruited to work through informal intermediaries, such as illegal agents, are subjected to trafficking and all forms of exploitation and discrimination.”

In this regard, Fabian Gua, director of a British human rights organization, also said that “the deceit with the intent of mistreating people by hiring them for jobs they did not agree to is purely human trafficking."

In response to these violations, Instagram officials deleted these accounts.

“Human exploitation is horrific, and we don’t allow it on Instagram. We’ve disabled all the accounts reported to us,” said Stephanie Otway, a spokeswoman for Facebook and Instagram.

Women Sold to KSA

According to the Washington Post, through social media and electronic applications, unlicensed agents place women job seekers into jobs that always lack documentation and assurances of proper pay and working conditions. Several women who were sold via Instagram said that they are forced to work tiring hours for far less money than they had been promised,

according to the same source. Many low-paid women migrants in Saudi Arabia bear deplorable working conditions. Twelve hours of work per day are the least number of hours these women have to pass in addition to being obliged to perform tasks not remotely relevant to a job description such as massage.

These ‘women’ are working under inhuman conditions like inadequate food, denial of vacation benefits, and prohibition of telephone contact or any other form of direct communication with family members.

Human Rights Watch documented cases in which “women had no effective means to complain to their embassies or Saudi authorities about contract violations, gross mistreatment, and, in some cases, sexual abuse and rape, unless they manage to escape.”

The kingdom is home to 10 million foreign workers, including 3.7 million domestic workers. In the waves of change in assuring and respecting women human rights, the oil-rich country has taken measures in recent years to boost employment protection and prevent abuse.

Indeed, Saudi Arabia bans the word ‘maid’ in job adverts as “derogatory” under new regulations endeavoured to uphold the rights of foreign workers in advertisements for new jobs and in the recruitment process, according to the National News Website.

The Saudi Ministry of Commerce said that “job adverts should not include terms such as “servant” or “maid,” and instead advertise for “workers.”

The new measures taken stipulate that “workers will not bear any financial costs ‘under any circumstances’ for exchanges of work permits or similar paperwork changes.”

The Paradox

Less than three years ago, Saudi Arabia was described as a patriarchal society, where only men were to be found in positions of responsibility. There was no place for the woman to hold any kind of position. She was not even allowed to drive a car. However, since last year, MBS has tried to bring Saudi Arabia closer to harmonizing with international standards. In doing so, the emergence of Saudi women as a social force is one of the most dynamic changes reshaping Saudi Arabia today. Taking an increased role in social and economic life, Saudi women are clearly on the move. Lifting a decades-old restriction, MBS is trying hard to improve and protect their social situation.

At an investment conference in October 2017, according to the Frontline Website, MBS characterized the changes that were taking place as a return to a more open past. “We are simply reverting to what we followed a moderate Islam open to the world and all religions.”