The horror stories that foreign domestic workers bring back from the Middle East have become notorious.
One woman returned with 24 nails and needles in her body. Another woman came back with a broken wrist. Some walked out of the plane completely wrapped in bandages. A few even needed to be carried out on stretchers.
The issue doesn't seem to be going away. Just today the BBC reported that Kenya imposed a ban on its citizens from traveling to the Middle East in search of domestic work.
Kenya isn't the first government to get involved in the issue. A year ago, Indonesia imposed a similar ban, preventing its citizens from traveling to Saudi Arabia after an Indonesian maid was beheaded for confessing to murdering her employer. He supposedly abused her often.
Whether the bans will work is hard to guess. It is estimated that there are 1.5 million domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, 660,000 in Kuwait, and 200,000 in Lebanon, lured by good wages for those with minimal qualifications.
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