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Maids top list of illegal residents
in Ajman

AJMAN — Instances of housemaids fleeing their sponsors in Ajman are on the increase, according to statistics released by the Department of Residency and Naturalisation in Ajman on Tuesday.

House maids topped the list of illegals in the emirate, the figures say.

Omran Al Ketbi the Director of the public prosecution unit of the Ajman Department of Naturalisation and Residency said a total of 1,050 illegal migrants have been arrested in the emirate in the first quarter of this year, an increase from 850 illegals in the same period last year.

“Most of the illegals were runaway maids, we almost handled 25 cases on a daily basis and some could be referred to the Ajman courts,” he said.

He said the strangest case they handled recently was of an Arab national who employed three Asian runaway maids. He was sentenced to a six month prison term or a payment of Dh350,000 in fine followed by deportation.

He said the runaway maids could face up to six months prison sentence or pay a fine and get deported.

He urged authorities to set up a big independent company to bring maids into the country that would give a guarantee to their clients that the maids would not run away. He also cautioned residents not to hire runaway maids as this was illegal in the country.

However a number of residents in Ajman believe the recruitment agents were at times partly to blame for the many runaway maids because they offered a very short guarantee period.

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

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