 How Africans, Givandans and Kenyans are mistreated in Saudi Arabia. One of the world's most dangerous places to work, Saudi Arabia is infamous for its terrible record on labour and human rights. Employers in the Gulf state have been plagued by charges of sexual, physical and emotional abuse of their foreign housekeepers for years, allegations that keep coming up. Many innocent Africans have been killed by torture in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations, while others have been forced to leave and work like slaves while being employed legally there. The kafala system, which ties employees to a single employer who has the power to renew or terminate a residency and work authorization in the nation, is one of the main causes of the abuses that migrant workers and domestic workers in particular experience on a regular basis in Saudi Arabia. In addition to being subjected to verbal and physical abuse, forced or bonded labour, long hours, delayed or unpaid wages, and wage denials, abusive employers frequently seize the passports of migrant employees. Welcome to Africa Reloaded and thanks for joining us. Stay with us to find out how Ugandan and Kenyan workers in Saudi Arabia are being treated. Take a seat and explore with us. The Global Fund to End Modern Slavery released prevalence estimates of forced labour among Kenyan and Ugandan nationals who travelled to the Gulf Cooperation Council states for employment in March of this year. Over a quarter of Ugandan respondents reported experiencing serious exploitation, while over 99% of Kenyan respondents said that their employers had mistreated them. Of course reports regarding the difficult decisions that young Africans face as a result of the region's increasing demographics and the alarming prevalence of human rights abuses in the migrant labour forces of the Gulf states are not brand new either. From one of our members, and I don't know how he got it about, our Kenyan girl who is being mistreated in Saudi Arabia, this girl went outside Kenya looking for green pastures, but unfortunately landed up in Saudi Arabia or somewhere in the Gulf. But things could get more difficult if nothing changes. On social media, horrifying accounts of abuse have gone viral, upsetting the public and requiring an official response. Dr Alfred Mutua, Kenya's new Minister of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, has made addressing worries about how Kenyans are treated in Saudi Arabia one of his top priorities. The opposition leaders in Uganda organised a campaign to bring back Ugandans who were living in the United Arab Emirates, pressuring the government to take action or risk losing the politically sensitive topic. Worn bilateral relations could, however, turn into far more challenging concepts when the experiences of African labourers influence how the general public views these states. The mistreatment of African migrant workers is a setback for Gulf states' reputation in the region, adding friction to the pursuit of its commercial and security agendas, just as the experiences of Africans in Guangzhou at the start of the COV-ID-19 pandemic temporarily back-footed China's aggressive pandemic diplomacy in the region, and just as George Floyd's murder prompted African leaders to decrease systemic racism in the United States. Media attention to the suffering of migrant workers who assisted Kota with World Cup preparations is likely to maintain the focus on these problems. Exporting labour is simpler for African governments than giving its citizens jolts at home. More foreign cash is generated through remittances sent back to Uganda by overseas employees than by coffee, the country's primary export product. More than 200 recruitment companies, some owned by army officers and close family members of the president, Yorim Yusovini, benefit financially from labour migration. African labour is desirable to Gulf employers because it is affordable. According to bilateral agreements, a maid from Uganda who works in Saudi Arabia is paid 900 Saudi riles, $240 per month, which is significantly less than the 1,500 riles that the majority of Filipinos earned. African guys are employed as guards and constructors. Moses Kefirita, a Ugandan who worked on a construction site in Dubai where he was paid less than the Indians working alongside him, said that they see us as people who are energetic but sluggish in mind, so they give us the hardest labour. Due to the alleged mistreatment of domestic employees, the government attempted to shut down Gulf's household industry in 2014. However, it was reopened for a questionable cause a few months later, according to the most recent Central Bank statistics. Kenya received $187 million from Kenyans living in Saudi Arabia during the first eight months of this year, making Saudi Arabia the third largest source of our remittances after the US and the United Kingdom, which each contributed $1.5 billion. Beatrice Waruguru, aged 23, was one of the unfortunate individuals who perished from horrific mistreatment in Saudi Arabia. Her damaged body was returned to Kenya in May of this year. A heart-breaking reminder of how the May trade system is flawed is the five-hour standoff at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport during which her mother refused to sign documents to denounce the abuse her daughter was subjected to. Also, Sleida Vugutza's murderer in Saudi Arabia last year harshly buried her in the desert before someone accidentally stumbled upon the burial. The body wasn't delivered to her family for several months. They were upset and outraged when they arrived at the airport. The government is aware that the outdated kafala system, which ties a migrant worker's legal status to their employer for a set duration, is in force for migrant workers in Jordan, Lebanon, and all Arab Gulf states. When there was slavery, this was referred to as indentured labor. The Gulf countries seek migrants from vulnerable families to work as domestic slaves in this kafala system, where you can only buy your freedom, in contrast to the West, where migration prioritizes highly educated people, girls in the Gulf sign documents that are written in Arabic. The girls' freedom to move is then limited when the handlers take their passports away. Any subsequent escape would only lead to a jail facility. Some slaves who had been purchased during the Caribbean slave trade were freed after paying the masters the shipping and purchase money. Similar conditions still apply to migrant domestic workers in the Gulf today. They must, however, pay their sponsors a sizeable sum that is estimated as the agency recruitment charge, the visa cost, and the flying ticket before they may win freedom. The accounts from the Gulf, as told by survivors, are direct from Satan's lair. Africa will continue to export labor because for a large number of those who travel there, they seek a means to survive. However, Africans who are well connected and organized will continue to press their governments to defend their citizens who live overseas. Building goodwill and an environment that fosters deeper relationships may prove to be a long-term uphill battle. Thanks for watching to the end. Please make sure to like, share, comment and subscribe to Africa Reloaded.