IMAGINE…
You’re recruited to live and work in a foreign country
You work from sun up to sundown 6 days each week
You’re herded onto the back of trucks like cattle and dropped off at a work
location before dawn each day, then picked up after sunset
You’re paid very low wages for your hard manual labor
You have to work for months to pay the recruitment agency fees
You send all you make back to feed your extended family and often go without
Your labor is arduous and you’re working outside in extreme heat and humidity
You only get to return to your country to visit your family every 2 years
You live in extremely crowded substandard housing
You live this way for years because you have no other way to feed your family
You will never be allowed to become a citizen of the country you’re developing
You have very few rights under your host country’s legal system
You may have to put up with mistreatment by your employer
You’re often lonely, depressed and sick due to neglecting your health
Your employer will only pay for medical care that involves your ability to do your job-
injury to arms, legs or back are covered…eye infections, no way
You will be sent home if you get sick and can no longer work
IMAGINE…this is your life…
peace~henry
My quest blog 
This is hard to even grasp. There should be international laws to protect these people from these conditions.
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Hi Cindy. The labor laws are slowly changing in the Gulf to be more inclusive of all workers. Unfortunately, these abuses take place in other parts of world as well, just not on the same dramatic scale as in the Gulf. As long as there are desperately poor people looking for a way (any way) to feed their families, this sort of abuse will thrive.
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“… The visible presence of wealth easily silence the criticisms voiced behind the closed doors. The winners are those who earn as much as possible and show off its material manifestation as effectively as possible. This is the dominant atmosphere one can hear and feel in these remote supply centers of international immigrant workers.” — Nanke Mitsuko.
(2015. “Dreams Made of Bricks and Tiles: International Migration, Conspicuous Consumption and Social Change in Rural Est Java” in Kurosawa Aiko and William Bradley Horton (eds) Consuming Indonesia, Consumption in Indonesia in the Early 21st Century)
The local villagers think (and see) that their neighbors who came back from working in Middle East countries are rich. Hence, many of them want to go too. The low currency rates in developing countries is also a problem. Being treated inhumanly isn’t outweigh the prosperity they’ll gain once they come back to their village. The downside of globalization (in this interconnecting capitalist system) is a legal slavery?
Then, I remember those who worked in my household told me, their boss in Arabian countries were more strict. And you’re right about the isolation; loads of work (even compare with here in Indonesia; the wage is much lower but the employers are generally more lenient). So, they gritted their teeth, endured their hardships for a couple of years, saved as much money as possible, and then went back home bringing money for their family.
I’m sorry for the rambling. This is very interesting, sir. I can’t help it.
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Hi…thanks for sharing the personal experiences of Indonesian people who’ve worked in the Gulf!
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You’re welcome!
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