Maid unpaid for over 6 years in Saudi donates salary to charity

During her decade-long service in Saudi Arabia, she had neither seen nor touched a Saudi Riyal.

A 45-year-old Nepali housemaid, who had not received her salary for more than six years, has donated two months of her pay to the needy people in Taif, Saudi Arabia.
According to the Saudi Gazette, Gangamaya Kumal came to work in Saudi Arabia as a housemaid in 2008 for a monthly salary of SAR500. Since then she has not been allowed to go back home ever, nor has she been allowed even a single-day off in her decade-long service in the country.
She was not even able to attend the funerals of her husband as well as her father, both of whom passed while she was still working in the country, when an earthquake had destroyed her house in her home country.
The problems faced by Gangamaya came to the fore when her sponsor brought her to the Nepalese consulate in Jeddah for passport renewal. One of the officials questioned her as to why had she not travelled even once during the last 10 years. That is when the housemaid lodged a complaint with the authorities in Taif with assistance of the officials in the Nepalese consulate.
She claimed that her mobile phone had been confiscated by her sponsor and emphasised on her inability to interact with anyone else other than the people belonging to her sponsor's household.
Her children had informed her that their calls to her had been declined whenever they tried to contact her through the phone. "I wanted to give some money in charity myself. Even that opportunity was denied to me and my sponsor told me that he had donated SR1,000 to the poor on my behalf and deducted that amount while calculating my pending wages," Gangamaya was quoted as saying in the Saudi Gazette.
She also said that during her decade-long service in Saudi Arabia, she had neither seen nor touched a Saudi Riyal.
The housemaid reported that even though her sponsor had told her that he had been transferring SAR500 to her family back home on a monthly basis, she had no idea if he had been doing the same. The sponsor, however, claimed to have sent the money for a period of 3 years and 4 months.
She has been paid her due wages amounting to SAR30,196 for over 6 years and 8 months. This amount has been paid after the deduction of her medical bills along with other expenses which Gangamaya accepted excluding the SAR1,000 donated to charity on her behalf.

• Saudi Arabia