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"content": "They are not able to move the case forward or get legal representation. They are at the mercy of the employer who does not want to let them go. It is horrible. We have seen from the families of these other ones. Many of us are on social media, with our Chair having a huge following. Since we went out there, most Kenyans were able to know we were in Saudi Arabia. We received many messages. You would hear a parent, a brother, an uncle or a sister writing to us saying that their kin was sick or in hospital. Initially, they were told she was in hospital, but the following day, they were told she died and there is no investigation. It seems out of control and we have basically lost it. However, on hearing a bit of what the other migrant workers from other countries go through, you realize that countries like Philippines have figured their migration laws and how to protect their migrant workers. Philippines and India are some of the leading countries in that scenario. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what really caught my eye or most of us was the fact that those countries like the Philippines have safe houses, where if, for whatever reason, a migrant worker feels that they are in danger or they need to leave the household where they are working, before they travel back to their country, there is a holding safe house, where they can stay until they are repatriated back. We do not have that. We were told that our girls would sometimes get mistreated, as some said, and on leaving the household, they would have to run away because the employer would report them to the police. We have had some cases where when they are trying to escape, they get accidents and die. It is a horrible situation and until we figure out a comprehensive policy and a legal framework, it does not seem right to continue sending these girls to Saudi Arabia. It is not just the girls, but I say girls because generally, the bigger percentage is of girls. Most of them are domestic workers, but there are men too. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we were also able to meet skilled workers there. We saw some veterinarians and engineers who were working on the roads and the metro there, who had come from Qatar to Dubai and then Saudi Arabia. There were some good cases, but those were few and far apart and mostly for the skilled workers. However, on these domestic workers, there is a problem. Until we have a comprehensive policy and legal framework, we will not be able to protect our migrant workers. When we talk about 93 deaths in 2021 of those workers out there, as I said, most of those deaths seem very questionable. We would have to be in serious denial if we were to say that everything is okay. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in my previous life before I became a Senator, I did a lot of immigration law. I was an immigration attorney. When I look at the scenario out there, it begs the question that we cannot, as a country, continue sending migrant workers out there without any protection and without them being able to reach out to us when there is need for help. In a place where the laws may be a bit different from most of what our Kenyans are used to, know or are familiar with, sometimes they find themselves on the wrong side of the law, and there is no one to help them out. They had an office of the Labour Attaché, but there was only one, Mr. Juma, for everybody in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I am talking about one officer when the"
}