The continued abuse of domestic workers in Jordan despite recent legislation to protect and promote their rights suggests that the problem is more cultural than legal.
The government amended the Labour Law to extend protection to domestic workers under the legislation and adopted rules to regulate their employment conditions.
Still, the problem persists with no end in sight due, so it seems, to the cultural perception of domestic helpers as some kind of inferior human beings not entitled to all the basic rights that belong to all mankind.
Calling domestic servants "khadamat" has a certain demeaning tone that demotes their status as human beings.
People who recruit foreign girls and women to employ them as assistants to carry out domestic work at their homes must be made to realise that these fine people are entitled to all the human rights that they themselves enjoy.
Those who abuse domestic workers must be made to comprehend that domestic workers are first and foremost human beings who left their homes and families and came from far away nations in order to help many families in the country with their household chores, including rearing their infants and children.
Unless employers who violate the rights of their domestic helpers are held accountable in a court of law and punished, the crisis is destined to continue unabated.
Work inspectors are called upon to conduct routine checks on homes where domestic workers are employed to make sure that their living and work conditions are up to standard. Otherwise the mistreatment of such people will persist to the detriment of the image of the country and its people.
A day needs to be designated for international and national recognition of domestic workers' rights during which the entire international community can join hands to highlight their plight.
A national campaign can also be launched with a similar goal so that violations of domestic workers' human rights come to an end.
The bottom line is that much more needs to be done to protect domestic workers from abuse and exploitation.
© Jordan Times 2009
