The un-Islamic treatment of our guest workers

Often in the hubbub of life we may forget what it is to be Muslim. We have our priorities at work, at home and to our partners. As we deal with a crisis in the office or try to reach home safely after dealing with the chaotic Jeddah traffic, we tend to forget that there is true suffering at our door. And we sometimes choose to ignore it.
It is a woman’s lot in Saudi Arabia to expect unreliable transportation. The driver may or may not show up. You are stuck in the heat trying to flag down a taxi or rely on the good nature of a security guard to hail one for you.
So when my driver was suddenly unavailable for a week, I was neither surprised nor angry. That is the way it goes. But I was surprised and angry when he told me the reason for his absence.
My driver’s relative, a legal expatriate with a valid driver’s license and iqama, met a serious traffic accident and sustained head injuries. My driver spent the week trying his best to get Saudi society to treat him like a human being.
“We are Muslims like you,” he said of his family.” So why are we treated like animals?”
An ambulance arrived at the accident scene and instead of taking the man, a taxi driver, immediately to a hospital, paramedics called several government medical centers asking to bring the victim there.
Every hospital emergency room supervisor said they had no beds. Finally, a private hospital demanded a SR 10,000 deposit to admit him. The family spent the day rounding up the money since the man’s sponsor was out of the country and unavailable to provide assistance.
My driver’s relative was treated at the private hospital, but after some days, the financial office demanded SR 150,000 for continued care despite the fact the patient was in and out of a coma and was once found on the floor by his family.
No one at the hospital noticed the patient had fallen out of bed. SR 150,000 is a large sum of money for most Saudis, not to speak of an African taxi driver. When the family said they had no funds, the hospital’s financial office threatened to cut off visitation.
When the family pleaded they were a needy case, the hospital administration responded that services for the needy were only available to Saudis.
When the driver asked me why his relative was treated like an animal, I thought the same thing. For one, there is a new system in place by royal decree that dictates that any patient, regardless of his citizenship, must be treated at a private hospital at the expense of the Saudi government if bed is not available in a government hospital.
The injured person is at home now. He can’t speak and still has blood on the brain. He needs medical treatment, but is no longer an urgent case and can only be taken as a private patient. With no funds available, he lies in bed at home awaiting his fate.
When I told this story to a friend recently, she had one of her own. A large Saudi employment company recruited a young Filipino woman to work as a domestic worker for SR 500 a month with the promise she would soon receive a raise.
No raise came and she decided after a few months to return to the Philippines because SR 500 was not a livable wage. She submitted her resignation and asked for her return airline ticket but was refused. Her employer required her to work at least three more months to pay for the ticket since she was only in the Kingdom for 15 months.
When co-workers reminded her of the injustice of it all, she replied, “I don’t mind doing that because at the end of the day I am buying my freedom.”
Imagine in this day and age a domestic worker buying her freedom as if she was an indentured servant.
Having lived abroad I also had my own experiences with government policy.
As a legal resident in England, I received excellent health care. Not once did my status as a foreign student become an issue to receive treatment.
I can’t say the same for Sweden. Although I was in the country legally and for a conference, a hospital denied me emergency medical care when I had food poisoning. I will always visit England. I hope never to return to Sweden.
Many expats must have the same feelings about Saudi Arabia. And as Saudis we must ask ourselves whether this is the way to treat visitors who serve us. Should we really be surprised when we hear stories about how much they hate us?
Both the taxi driver and the Filipino housemaid are victims of systemic mistreatment in the private sector. When the Filipino woman finally arrives home, her memories of Saudi Arabia will be unkind.
She was not Muslim, but it’s unlikely she would consider Islam after what she has gone through. I can’t say I blame her.