More than 24,000 housemaids were sent from King Khalid International Airport to the Center for Housemaids Affairs in Riyadh this year so far.
The center helps maids whose sponsors do not appear on their arrival at the airport as well as runaway maids referred from police stations or their embassies for deportation, center director Tariq Al-Zahrani said in a statement recently.
According to a study prepared by the center, the number of complaints in Riyadh about runaway maids in 2012 so far reached 11,195, a 46 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
The study added that with 3,379 complaints Ethiopian maids accounted for the largest number of cases, followed by Indonesians (2,985), Sri Lankans (1,940), Kenyans (1,030) and Filipinos (987) as well as those from Comoros, Ghana and Senegal.
Al-Zaharani said the center helps maids who do not want to work for their sponsors and those who seek refuge at their embassies.
They are first sent to the center to complete their deportation formalities.
Maids arrested by police patrols, the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or detained following complaints from sponsors are also sent to the center.
If a maid has any claims to be settled, she will have to supply the address or telephone number of her sponsor.
If she cannot give such details she will be kept in the center for seven days before she is deported.
He strongly suspected some organized criminal gangs were encouraging maids to run away the moment they landed at the airport or while they were being sent from one place to another.
He believed a maid would not be able to find a shelter and job the moment she leaves her legal employer without a well-organized gang helping her.
They chase a newly arrived maid traveling in a cab and bribe the driver in an attempt to convince the maid that they are helping her.
They bargain with her or tempt her with higher wages, he said.
He said there are Saudis, Ethiopians and Indonesians of both sexes who offer the maids shelter in rest houses, farms or apartments, Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Monday.
The maids are also prompted to run away because of homesickness, physical or mental diseases and a desire to get higher wages.
Some of them are admitted to mental hospitals, he said.
Center for Housemaids Affairs helps unclaimed and runaway maids
