Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary Roseline Njogu has confirmed the safety of over 288 domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.
The PS said that the women are currently in holding centres called Sakan where female domestic workers in distress can go.
“So we went to Sakan holding centre in Riyadh. In this particular shelter, they had 257 Kenyans, another 31 are in the other 12 branches across Saudi Arabia,” she said on Twitter.
Njogu said that over the last two years, the shelters have taken in 8,000 Kenyan women and helped them in coming back home.
“They do this at zero cost to the worker and support our Embassy in Riyadh. They also offer legal aid to domestic workers to resolve pending employment disputes and other legal concerns,” she said.
They also assist them in procuring exit visas, which Njogu said one could not leave Saudi without.
She said she was surprised by what she did not see as she was told she would find sick and malnourished women.
However, Njogu said, the women get to keep their phones and are free to leave if they want.
“There is even recreation, I watched them swim!” She said.
“The women we met confirmed that they are given food, shelter, medical care, psychological care and eventually, plane tickets to go home. The Embassy also visit at any time to check on them,” she added.
She said that with Labour CS Florence Bore and a few members of the Senate who had also made the trip, they provided consular services to the women.
“In fact, 75 of the 288 women in Sakan already have their tickets to Nairobi,” she said.
