Fatmata's Story

Fatmata’s Story looks at issues in the kafala system that leave a worker trapped and unable to return home. It also highlights deception in recruitment, recruitment fees, wage theft, extremely long working hours and inhumane working conditions.

Fatmata* says she came to Oman to “find a better means of survival for me and my family.” To come to Oman, she borrowed US$1,000 from her family and paid it to a recruiter who told her he had a 6-month job for her working in a supermarket and making the equivalent of US$450 a month.

However, when she arrived in February 2020, Fatmata was taken straight to a home where she was told she would work as a live-in domestic worker under a two-year agreement. Finding herself in a vastly different situation than she expected, Fatmata cried for four days after she arrived. So, the employer took her back to the recruitment office. After staying in the office for a few days, she was sent to another family’s house to work. 

In that house, Fatmata worked from 5:30 am until 11:45 pm (18.25 hours/day) with one 30-45 minute break. She worked without a day off, cleaning, cooking, washing and ironing clothes, and taking care of a young child. She also took care of two elderly women. Her tasks included dressing the women and changing their diapers. She was not given her own place to sleep, so she slept outside the room where the elderly women slept. 

“I was called a slave and [told I] should only work like a slave,” she said. 

After a month, Fatmata received her salary. But it was only 75 Omani Rials per month (approximately US$195) — after she complained about the treatment in the house and asked to return to the office, they started paying her 70 Omani Rials (approximately US$182) — 40% of what her recruiter in Sierra Leone had promised.

Periodically, the employers would search Fatmata’s belongings, take away her phone or disconnect her from the home’s Wi-Fi. Fatmata’s employers did not provide her with adequate food. And, if Fatmata wanted to buy things for herself, she had to give money to someone in the employer’s family to make the purchase for her but they would tell her all the stores were closed. 

“In the morning and in the night, I don’t know what I’m eating. … [I] normally hide to eat or will not eat when [I] am around because they did not want to give me their food.” 

If she was tired or not feeling well, Fatmata could not refuse to work. She began losing weight and also developed a rash. When she showed it to the employers they did not take her for medical treatment, so Fatmata treated it herself with a natural remedy of lime and salt. 

“This is the first time when I came to Oman — see my condition,” Fatmata said, showing a photo of herself with a full face and round cheeks. “As I started work in that house, my condition was changed, like this”, she said showing a photo of herself with a rash, much slimmer face and sunken cheeks. 

Seeking support, Fatmata messaged her recruiter in Sierra Leone to ask to return home.

“From the time I cry, I said ‘I want to go back home,’ the agent told me that when I finish 6 months, I will go back home. He told me about that. I said, ‘ok.’ Because they will told me that the money they will spend for us to come is 6 months, when 6 months finish the money has finished on me, so they will make me go back home.”

Her agent in Sierra Leone also discouraged Fatmata from asking the office to change employers before she had been with her current employer for 6 months. When she reached the 6-month mark, Fatmata contacted the office in Oman. She was surprised to learn that they discouraged her from returning, telling her the office was ‘closed’ and that if she returned they would lock her in a room and not give her food. 

“I said, ‘Oh now I’m suffering in this place. Please remove me here I want to go back home or you go and find me somewhere to work.’ They refuse.”

After 6 ½ months with her employer, Fatmata felt she could not stay any longer, so she asked a friend for help. Her friend helped her leave the house by providing a taxi, giving her a place to stay and helping her find a place to work. However, every time Fatmata went to new places to work, the employers didn’t pay Fatmata when she had completed the job. Soon, the friend she was staying with began asking Fatmata to pay for food, rent and the taxi that she had used to leave her sponsor’s house. 

In late 2020, the Government of Oman opened an amnesty period for workers who had left their employer, allowing them to leave the country. Fatmata was eager to register. However, the friend who helped her leave the house told her that if she wanted to register for amnesty, she should pay 50 Omani Rials to “join the amnesty group.” Fatmata could never save up this money, so she never paid it. 

Then, she got in contact with Do Bold who provided this support for free. However, when we tried to help her register using the online portal, we received a message saying she could not because her employer/sponsor had not filed “absconding” charges against her. To try to address this issue, Fatmata went to the Ministry of Labour office in Muscat. She provided them with her passport number but was not given any new information.

“So now, I don’t know what to do, ma, because now I’m very sad.”

We advised her that the next best step would be to speak with her sponsor or office and make arrangements with them directly. Fatmata then called her office boss many times over ‌several days, but they never responded to her. She does not have the phone number for her sponsor, so she could not contact him directly.

“Up till now, they will not respond to me. I messaged them they will not respond,” she said several weeks after first messaging her office boss. “So I don’t know what you have to do for me now because me too I want to go. Me too I want to go back home.”

Fatmata was worried about a language barrier with the office boss, so Do Bold sent a message to him in Arabic. Read receipts show that he played the voice message the same day we sent it, but he never responded, nor did he respond to the follow-up message we sent eight days later (which read receipts also show that he listened to the day we sent it). 

Many of Fatmata’s friends had been able to register for amnesty and return home, which reduced her safety net. She was having difficulty sleeping and feeling even more desperate to leave. Some of her friends were also caught up in police raids on buildings where African migrant workers lived. 

“My friend told me that anyone that they catch, now you will go to jail for 6 months jail or your family from your country will send you ticket money … that is the law, that is what my friend told me. … Only my body in this country, but all my heart my soul, I want to go back home.”

Fatmata continued waiting. When the Government of Oman opened another amnesty period in November 2021, Fatmata tried to register again. But the answer was the same – her sponsor had not made a case against her so she could not register. She messaged her sponsor again over the course of several days but, as of this writing, she has not received a response. 

For the next steps, Do Bold recommended ‌Fatmata to go to the Ministry of Labour. However, as of December 2021, proof of a COVID-19 vaccine is required to enter the Ministry and Fatmata is not vaccinated. In addition, it is still uncertain whether, if she goes to the Ministry of Labour, any support can be provided. 

At the time of writing this report, her situation is still not resolved.  

“I don’t know what I have to do now because, me, I want to go back home.”

(*This report uses pseudonyms for all the domestic workers and others mentioned and withholds names for in the interest of their privacy and security)