Domestic helps in distress to get a shelter in Dubai

Dubai - The public can register complaints with the department by calling 8005111 Amer or 04-7074878 or 04-7074889.

The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs - Dubai (GDRFA) is planning to provide a makeshift residence for female domestic helps until they reach their sponsors' homes. It has also planned to set up a shelter for housemaids in distress.
The directorate will also build a training centre to familiarise female domestic servants their rights and duties, a move seen as a step to address and stamp out any problem which might appear on the future.
Statistics show that transactions related to disputes between the sponsor and the sponsored being finalised at the Domestic Help Department stood at 988 last year, including 245 reports of absconding, 54 complaints against sponsors for withholding the passports and 338 on applications submitted for visa cancellation.
Major-General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director-General of the GDRFA, said that the authority has recently introduced the Domestic Help Department to follow up and address all issues pertaining to domestic helps in Dubai, to protect their rights and maintain relationships with them, sponsors and recruitment agencies.
Colonel Khalaf Al Ghaith, Assistant to the Director-General for the Illegals and Foreigners Follow-Up Section, said that the directorate will open a studies and analysis section, as well as an awareness section.
The offices for the Domestic Help Department will be established soon, he noted. Captain Hussein Darwish Abbas, Director of the department, noted that the department in Dubai is the first of its kind in the UAE. The public can register complaints with the department by calling 8005111 Amer or 04-7074878 or 04-7074889.
Foreign diplomats hailed the initiative. "The problems of domestic help always occur, but there is a great cooperation from the Domestic Help Department of Dubai's DNRD," said Kenya's Consul-General in Dubai, Kariuki Mugwe.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai