A Saudi princess living in Irvine was charged Wednesday with human trafficking after a Kenyan woman who worked in her home fled and contacted the police. Orange County prosecutors allege that Meshael Alayban forced the woman to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for only $220 a month, despite initial promises of an eight-hour day and higher wages. Alayban kept the domestic worker’s passport and documents so she was unable to leave.It’s an ugly, troubling story, but it’s a familiar one in Saudi Arabia.
According to the U.S. Department of State’s “Trafficking in Persons Report” for 2012:
Men and women from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and many other countries voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or other low-skilled laborers, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude, including nonpayment of wages, long working hours without rest, deprivation of food, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and restrictions on movement such as the withholding of passports or confinement to the workplace. Although many migrant workers sign contracts delineating their rights, some report work conditions that are substantially different from those described in the contract. Other migrant workers never see a contract at all, leaving them especially vulnerable to forced labor, including debt bondage
