Katy Migiro, homson Reuters Foundation, 14 July 2014
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A Kenyan woman trafficked to Saudi Arabia is being held by a recruitment agency demanding $3,400 for breach of contract before it will release her, The Star newspaper reported on Monday.
Kenyans often migrate to the Middle East in search of jobs but are sometimes exploited in domestic servitude, brothels, massage parlours or in forced manual labour.
Teresia Njuguini, 25, was told she was going to work in Dubai as a secretary, her mother told the paper. But she ended up being abused in a domestic job in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
She worked for three months without a salary before being passed on to another agency, her mother said.
The agency is now claiming 300,000 Kenyan shillings ($3,400) from her for a breach of a job contract that was to run for two years, the newspaper reported.