Close to 20% of all domestic workers are migrant workers, according to the International Labor Organization. Most of these domestic workers are women and they are particularly common in Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia. 

Kenya sends a lot of domestic workers to Gulf countries. More than half of the over 87,784 Kenyans employed in the Middle East since 2019 have been domestic workers.

But many women returning from this work describe horrific circumstances, particularly in Saudi Arabia. And in an alarming number of cases, death. 

On today’s episode of the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, reporter Pauline Ongaji talks with Kenyan women who have returned from domestic work in Saudi Arabia. Then host Reena Ninan speaks with Caroline Kasina from the Solidarity Center in Kenya and Ruth Khakame from the Kudheiha union about their efforts to organize Kenyan domestic workers in Gulf states. 

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