Parveena Begum (not her real name), a 26-year-old migrant worker, burst into tears as she described her life of torment and sexual exploitation at the hands of her employer in Saudi Arabia.
Parveena went to the kingdom around four and a half years ago with a domestic worker visa but today is an illegal migrant worker, working as a house help.
She has been raped, abused, tortured and sexually assaulted. And she misses the life she used to live in Bangladesh.
This correspondent met with her at Hafar Al Batin area near Alexander Language Schools, Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia and listened to her story.
Parveena broke down talking about her six-year-old daughter Kulsum (also not her real identity). She said she wanted to give her daughter a better life by earning some money abroad. To that end, she had taken some help from a “manpower agency” in Fakirapool, near the Panir Tank, in Dhaka.
Parveena had to spend Tk20,000 in order to get to Saudi Arabia. When she reached King Abdulaziz International Airport, a Bangladeshi man received her and took her to an office. The next day a Saudi man came and took her to work in his house.
Parveena said she was happy to get a good job and started dreaming about how she would help her family.
She thought that she would send some money to her husband to buy a rickshaw van that he could rent out, but within a month, her dream was shattered when she came to know that her monthly salary was only SAR 1000 (approx Tk23,000), and that she would only get the entire sum after one year.
“The Saudi family had six members, including three unmarried adult males. Often they tortured me when they got drunk and sometimes made forcible sexual advances,” she said through her tears.
“I was sleeping in the store room near the kitchen. At midnight, one of the older brothers covered my mouth with his hand and raped me. I tried to resist with all my force but I failed.”
Growing up in a small village in Gouripur upazila of Mymensingh, nearly five years ago Parveena decided to go to Saudi Arabia for a better life in order to help her family out. Her husband, Siddik Ali, 45, works as a van puller for a school in Azimpur, Dhaka.
She said she did not receive any salary from the Saudi employer for more than three years. She had cried and asked for a phone to contact her family, but was refused any help.
Even before she arrived in Saudia Arabia, she had landed herself in debt.
“My father borrowed Tk10,000 from local NGOs and my husband provided the rest of the money so I could come to Saudi Arabia,” she added.
“At first my agent told me that I would only need to cook for two members of a family – a husband and a wife – but later I found out that the family had six members and my duties included all kinds of household chores, including cooking, washing, cleaning and others.
“It was hard for me to understand their language. I also could not cook to their taste,” she said.
“When I left that house I thought I was a free bird.”
One day, through a stroke of luck, she found some Bangladeshis who agreed to help her. With their help, Parveena went to the Bangladesh Consulate in Jeddah and was sent to a safe house.
But the safe house was far from safe, said Parveena. Some of the consulate staff at the safe house tried to get her to work in their houses and offered her shady deals.
Dhaka Tribune reached out to Kazi Salahuddin, second secretary (labour wing), Jeddah Consulate, but he declined to comment.
When she was forced to leave the safe house, she managed work in Bawadi area near Madinah Road for a family in a Bangladeshi neighbourhood.
Parveena said: “Now I am so happy, because I am working for a good family which has only two members and they are nice people. They are treating me like a human being and not a slave.”
Now Parveena is earning SAR 2100 (approx Tk47,600), and an additional SAR150 (approx Tk3,400) for mobile and conveyance. Every month, Parveena sends around BDT 45,000 to her family via hundi or bKash.
Responding to a question about this illegal mode of transaction, Parveena said she had no legal papers and visa. She further said that when she had legal papers, she earned SAR 1000, adding: “So why would I need papers now?”
She said that she would return to Bangladesh after two years.
Abuse and exploitation
According to government figures, more than 270,000 female workers have travelled to Saudi Arabia since 1991, but many of them have returned home with stories of abuse and exploitation.
In the last five years, at least 70 Bangladeshi female workers died in Saudi Arabia, 55 of them committing suicide.
In the last five years 22,000 women workers returned home with allegations of sexual harassment, low pay, physical torture and other allegations, said Golam Moshi, ambassador of Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia.
Golam Moshi also admitted to the ill-treatment of some of the female migrant workers at the hands of Saudi employers.