Runaway domestic helpers could number 3,000 — association

AMMAN — The official number of runaway domestic workers is currently 1,100, whereas the actual unannounced number amounts to 3,000 helpers, Domestic Helpers Recruitment Agencies Association President Khaled Hseinat said on Wednesday. 

The association, in cooperation with the Labour Ministry, is going to implement a binding insurance that includes compensating employers whose domestic helpers flee the workplace or refuse to work. 

It also covers workers' health insurance expenses at public and private hospitals, Hseinat told the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

There are 100,000 foreign domestic helpers in the Kingdom, he said, adding that 35,000 of them reside in the houses where they work illegally, without renewing their work and residence permits. 

If the residency law is not amended, the phenomenon of runaway domestic workers will grow further, said Hseinat, adding that punishment should be intensified for those who hire domestic helpers illegally, urging the foreign, interior and labour ministries to work together to deal with violators. 

Draft amendments to the law include imposing a fine of JD3,000 on those hiding illegal domestic workers at their houses, he added.

Moreover, Hseinat called for restricting workers' financial transactions via an electronic system that bans them from transferring money to their countries if their status is not rectified in accordance with the law. 

If an employer does not pay the domestic worker's wage for three months, he/she loses insurance policy rights, he said, noting that in the first year the policy costs JD120 and after that a JD100.

The opening of the Ghana and Uganda markets, as well as the expected opening of the Cambodian one, will affect prices positively as they will vary between JD1,800 and JD2,800 without the insurance policy. 

Some 21 recruitment offices were shut down for violating the law, Hseinat said, urging citizens to not pay more than JD550 before the domestic helper arrives to make sure all legal matters are sorted at the office. 

He added that there are 186 recruitment offices around the Kingdom.