Over 100 Kenyans detained in Saudi as State dithers

Inside the vast humid hall, a weak woman lies on the floor struggling to breathe. Her dry coughs are drowned by the whizzing sounds of air-conditioners meant to keep away the sweltering heat at the infamous Samasco deportation camp in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

She lies there for hours until someone helps her to eat or take her to the toilet.

For is the case for Anita (not her real name), who for five months she has been waiting for her deportation back to Kenya.

Anita, who arrived in the country with the promise of a better life and salary, worked for over three years as a domestic worker but she could no longer handle the harsh working conditions.

“I would wake up at 3am, clean the house, prepare meals, wash clothes and three dogs, clean three minors every day before retiring to bed at 11pm,” she says.

In a voice-note from the deportation camp, she says things got worse after she was sexually abused by her employer, and her efforts to seek assistance fell on deaf ears.

Later she contracted pneumonia. Too weak to work, she sought help from the Kenyan embassy and was taken to the deportation centre.

Five months down the line, weak, without any savings and facing death, she waits in the hope that the government will intervene.

Just like Anita, more than 100 other Kenyans are being held at the centre. With them are over 1,000 women from different parts of the world.

In videos, voice-notes and texts sent from the camp, they told of harrowing stories of neglect, hunger and mental torture.

In one of the videos, the women held a protest to compel their embassies to fly them back home.

One victim said they were living on one meal per day, sleeping on the floor and in inhumane conditions. Speaking on phone, the mother of three said she went to the  country in 2023 as a house help but had to flee one year later.

“I had been promised Sh35,000 per month by my agent and this was reduced to Sh12,000 and I had to flee due to persistent assault by the boss,” she said amid tears.

And even though she had enough savings to fly home, her recruiting agent refused to had back her travel documents.  

“I’m anemic and it’s becoming hard to get food and medication and efforts to seek help from the embassy have failed,” she said.

“We have called the embassy so many times and they promise come to our rescue but no one has bothered and we fear we will be taken back home in coffins,” added another.

According to Sakina Mohammed of Lifebloom International Services, which is involved in assisting the victims, the situation was worsening each day.

She noted that despite the risks involved, tens of desperate women were flying to the Gulf countries to seek green pastures but many were coming back traumatised, sick or even dead. Some victims and  their families have petitioned the Parliament to come up with a policy addressing the plight of thousands of Kenyans working in foreign countries.

Under the Kenya Diaspora Workers and Opportunity Seekers Association, they noted that over 35,000 workers in the Middle East were under various forms of threat.

The association identified a case of a woman who died in Iraq and her body was interred there, and another of a Kenyan whose body arrived in the country with some internal organs missing.

Haron Muigai, who leads the group, recalls how his sister Lucy Wambui flew to Iraq in 2020 only to die a couple of days after her birthday. The family only learned about the death through a friend and efforts to seek help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get the body were fruitless.

The victims lawyer, George Kimani, said the petitions to the National Assembly and the Senate were seeking a task force to investigate hundreds of cases.

“We have also filed another petition with the Labour and Employment Court and all that we are seeking is a policy to safeguard the welfare of these workers,” he said.

Kimani claimed that there were hundreds of Kenyans in jail in the foreign countries who had been forgotten, challenging the Parliament to give the issue priority.

Karobi Kiratu of Haki Jamii Centre agreed, claiming the country was receiving at least a body every fortnight, some with missing organs.

“We hope that this petition will be addressed by Parliament so that we can have a policy that protects workers seeking a daily bread in the Middle East and Gulf countries,” he said.

Labour and Social Protection CS Alfred Mutua has said they were engaging Saudi Arabia authorities to address the matter.