Hiring housemaids on a temporary basis illegal in Oman

Muscat: Hiring housemaids on a temporary basis to meet Ramadan demands is illegal, a senior official at the Ministry of Manpower has said.
During Ramadan, many people in Oman tend to hire absconding housemaids.
“Hiring absconding maids is illegal. Instead of hiring them, they should report it to us,” Talib Al Dhabbari, the head of media department at the Ministry of Manpower, said.
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“By hiring runaway housemaids, the employers are providing shelter to them and covering up their violations,” the official added. In Oman, a housemaid can be hired only on a two-year visa. Temporary hiring is out of question.
Oman is facing a shortage of housemaids as countries that normally allow their citizens to migrate as domestic workers have tightened controls.
Jerry Dantis, a manpower recruitment agency official in Oman for the last 26 years, told the Times of Oman that the implementation of stricter rules, along with lengthy procedures and bans imposed on maids coming from certain African countries have led to a shortage of housemaids.
“We can say that compared to 2015, this year, there is roughly a 20 per cent shortage in the availability of housemaids in Oman,” he added.
However, many said that they urgently needed housemaids during Ramadan. “My family does not require a housemaid for the whole year but only during Ramadan. I cannot afford to pay an entire year’s salary to a housemaid who I need only for a month. That is why I hire a part-time housemaid during Ramadan only,” Ali Khalfan said.
Nowadays,it is not difficult to find absconding housemaids, he added. “Such housemaids advertise on the social media and even put up advertisements at some shopping centres,” Ali said.
He also said that he considered such people unsafe and that is why he asked them to report only between 4pm and 8pm as everybody was at home during that time.
On the other hand, Mohammed Al Balushi, another citizen living in Muscat, asked why housemaid agencies did not offer the services of part-time housemaids.
“We would pay a lot of money for part-time housemaids who could work for a few hours a day,” Mohammed said.
Providing such housemaids for the public in a proper and legal way will save the public and also will stop the public from hiring absconding and illegal housemaids, he added.
Saud Salmi, a trade union leader, who is quite vocal about domestic workers’ rights and welfare in Oman, had said earlier that reforming the Kafala system is one option that could help resolve this problem.
“A new agency with government control can be launched in Oman and those who need a housemaid can contact the agency and hire. The system should be that the employer can hire the service and not the person, which can resolve 90 per cent of the existing problems,” the trade union leader said.
Quoting Saudi Arabia’s Passport Department, Arab News reported that those who hire, harbour or protect illegal maids will be fined SR100, 000 and spend six months in jail, with expatriates involved being deported.
“Companies involved in such offences will be named and shamed, fined SR100,000 and deprived of recruitment for five years. The business owner will face a prison term of up to six months, while an expatriate will be deported,” the report said and added that the department has appealed to citizens and residents to report violations of residency and labour laws by calling 989. Employers can report their missing housemaids through the Interior Ministry’s Absher system.
According to government statistics, 57,420 workers fled their employers in the first six months of 2015, representing around three per cent of the 1.8 million expatriates registered in the Sultanate. Moreover, 31 housemaids were arrested by the joint inspection team of the Ministry of Manpower for violating the Labour Law between February 21 and 27 this year.
Article 18 in the Labour Law states that an employer shall not let any non-Omani worker authorised to work for him work with any other employer. The employer shall also not employ any worker authorised to work for another employer or residing in the Sultanate illegally.

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