Maids

Well gluttons for punishment, our new maid arrives from Sri Lanka on Friday. The saga of our last maid continued this week when I was asked to attend an arbitration meeting with Dubai Immigration after our last maid's embassy appealed my decision to report her as absconded. Laws regarding maids and sponsorship of staff in general leave you in a somewhat precarious position if the letter of the law is not abided by.

I agreed that our previous maid could be taken by her embassy to try and find her a new job, rather than being flown home. I agreed to this on the basis that the embassy would provide me with a letter confirming that they had taken full responsibility for her, within 48 hours. Whilst that would have given me some reassurance, it would not release me from my responsibility towards her as her sponsor. Therefore if she ran away, did something bad, died - I was still responsible for her or her actions. So, as after a week went by and still I had no letter from the embassy, I reported her as "absconded". I had never seen any ID proving that the guy she went with was in fact from the embassy. He could have been just her friend, or maybe a pimp - who knows. That's why I had to do what I did, to protect myself.

Having been reported as absconded, she would be deported when found and banned from working in the UAE for 1 year. It also absolved me of all responsibility for her. "Khalas". Finished. Done. Or so I thought...

Now this was done, we set about preparing the paperwork for our new maid. She was recommended to us by a family she has worked for for 2 years. She is a really nice girl from Sri Lanka who seems very conscientious and also has a bit of savvy about her. She will arrive early on Friday morning, having just had one months leave to go home a visit her family. We are pretty confident that things will work out fine with her and we will not have the same hassles again. Caz will be able to go back to her regular working hours, knowing that Milo.....remember :

..... will now have someone to look after him while we are at work / on leave etc.

Last Friday night at 10.30pm our doorbell rang, and I was presented with a letter "inviting" me to attend a meeting with Dubai Immigration, which of course I duly attended. Now, fair play to our ex-maid's embassy, they were doing their job well and managed to secure this meeting rather than her being deported straight away. The immigration officers listened to the story from both sides (her side including a whole string of lies - I especially loved the bit where Caz tried to kill her (she felt like it, but didn't actually try!)) Anyway, the upshot was that they seemed to fall for the sob story and allowed her one month to find another job - which I believe the embassy has found for her, so she is a very lucky lady and the embassy has played a blinder. Honestly, I'm not sure why they bothered asking me to go. I had no influence over the decision really, I was no longer her sponsor, so I held no sway at all. But, it is now finally over and when she has her new sponsor, at last I can get back my 2000 Dhs deposit held by immigration that all sponsors must pay.

So now, onto the next...... [desperately looking for wood to touch]