Somalia President pushes housemaid deal with Saudis

MOGADISHU, Somalia-Federal Government of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamudhas insisted on controversial deal to send 15, 000 housemaids to Saudi Arabia, Garowe Online reports.

Mohamud who maintains close links with Saudi rulers, has agreed to dispatch thousands of domestic workers on visit to the wealthy Kingdom, drawing the ire of activists, who called the Memorandum of Understanding ‘flawed’. 

Saudi employers are accused of inhumane treatments, with Uganda more recently banning its nationals from travelling to Saudi Arabia as housemaids on concerns of abuses, joining Ethiopia, Indonesia and Philippines that imposed similar bans earlier.

“I am very sorry about how the debate on Somali girls was misjudged. Our girls now journey alone without being ordered by the government, they are not tracked down by rights groups, and they take to oceans on human trafficking; they wade through conflict-wracked Yemen, and enter Saudi Arabia on foot,” Mohamud remarked before reporters of TV4 while speaking in Sudanese capital, Khartoum over the weekend. 

Continuing, he added: “Now all those things are over, the government will be in charge of everything, offices and rights coordinators will be responsible for them, that is it, so there’s no problem at all.” 

He dismissed any abuses amid reports of tortures perpetrated against foreign housemaids working in Saudi Arabia.  

Mohamud has also fought off growing public outcry over the future of Somali girls expected to be recruited for Saudis, claiming they will return dignified and with honor.  

Somalia President is believed to have formed personal rapport with Sunni power Saudi Arabia monarch who wants to see Shiite Iran’s influence waned. 

Muslim countries have accused Iran of supporting terrorism in Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain at the end of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in the Turkish city of Istanbul on April 15.

GAROWEONLINE