"Kuwait opens shelter for 'runaway maids", 10 Nov 2014

"Day and night I had to be ready," said 24-year-old Charisse, a Filipina maid who worked in a Kuwaiti household for a year and a half. "At night, I could only sleep for an hour or two. The husband was nice, but his wife and three children beat me and I was not allowed any contact with my family." Her friend Malaya, 29, also worked in a Kuwaiti household until very recently...

These two women, whose names have been changed to protect their privacy, have spent the last few days in a new government-run shelter for "runaway maids" in a Kuwaiti suburb. The house, which has been in use for months, is set to formally open later this year. Another such shelter which opened in 2007, had room for only 50 women; the new one has 500 beds and currently houses around 150 women.

Charisse and Malaya thought they could earn decent wages in Kuwait. The Filipino agency that brokered their employment promised a salary of $400 per month, which was far more than what Charisse earned from her job as a computer teacher back home. Malaya, who sold food on the street, earned even less.To their disappointment, they earned about $100 less than expected and some months received no pay at all. In addition, they each had to pay $1,400 to an employment agency for their airfare and training...