We are lured because of lack of employment

Recently we received an email from a lady who is currently in Saudi Arabia, we subsequently corresponded with her and tried to find out her situation and to what extant we can help. She gave us permission to share her story, so below you can read it with just her name changed:

Hello,
I’m Janet* and I’m working in Saudi Arabia. I wanted to inquire if upon my return you can use me to create awareness in the grassroots level and anywhere else you want to let people know that this is modern slavery. The situation here is so bad and many are embarrassed to share with the community.
We are lured because of lack of employment but its better to work at home than in any middle east country. I have been communicating with many women and the situation is worse because many young girls are now the target of trafficking.

We asked her if she had tried reporting the case and see if she could get help, this is what she said:

I have all the contacts I’m sorry to inform you that they don’t help anyone. I reported some case early this year of a girl who was being mistreated and nothing ever happened. The girl finally had to run away and report to the police. She stayed in custody for two months and wad transferred to the deportation centre. Later on she was deported and her salary areas for one year was slashed into two. She was paid half. No one ever wants to associate themselves with this issue. The best way is to let people know the truth about this place.

It is very sad that we cannot help Janet with much since there is very little we can do in Saudi Arabia, but once she comes back we will try to help her in the small ways we can. We did, however, get in contact with the girl who had come home and we are now trying to provide her with some assistance.

By Jakob Christensen