Saudi Arabia is home to nearly 4 million domestic workers, including 1.2 million women and 2.7 million men from Africa and Asia who play an essential role in enabling the country’s economic development and supporting family life. Yet, the experiences of Kenyan women outlined in this report illustrate how many of these workers endure gruelling, abusive and discriminatory working conditions, often amounting to forced labour and human trafficking.

Abusive recruiters sold the women interviewed for this report a dream before plunging them into an isolated, segregated reality of severe abuses being perpetrated in private households. They exploited the pressures shaping the lives of women and restricting their choices – soaring unemployment, few opportunities at home in Kenya and children to feed and educate. Once in Saudi Arabia they routinely withstood working days of 16 hours and more, with little rest and often not a single day off for months or even years. Some could never leave the house, and many were almost entirely cut off from the outside world. In their workplace, which was also their home, there was no escape from verbal abuse, demeaning treatment, racism, discrimination and extreme exploitation. In many cases, they were physically or sexually assaulted. Some were raped by their male employers and their sons. Many endured delayed or non- payment of their meagre wages. Almost all had their passports confiscated on arrival, making it virtually impossible for them to flee abusive employers, none of whom were held to account.