Radio Liberty reports Shamsia Asanalishoyeva left Tajikistan in the hope of better income and economic opportunities far from home, in Saudi Arabia.
A year later, the 46-year-old is anxious to return home after being rescued from the physical abuse she says she suffered while working as an undocumented employee in a family home on the Persian Gulf state's western coast.
Asanalishoyeva, who is now safely in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, reportedly acknowledges that she overstayed her tourist visa. The former TV reporter found a job as a domestic worker through a Saudi employment agency in 2016 and was working without the proper documentation.
Asanalishoyeva says she took a job as a house cleaner for a Saudi family in the port city of Jeddah, and received a monthly salary of 1,500 riyals (about $400). But she says she soon realized her job was to be a full-time “servant, nanny, and cook.”
“They tell you that you're being hired for cleaning only, but…they make you do everything: look after children, all the housework and cooking,” she says. “It's like a living hell.”
Eventually, she says, physical abuse at the hands of her employers led her to seek help, first from local police and now from Tajik diplomatic missions.
She recently sent RFE/RL photographs that show what appear to be bruises on her face, neck, arms, and legs. In a video interview with RFE/RL's Tajik Service, Asanalishoyeva says she was regularly beaten by the Saudi family.
RFE/RL cannot independently confirm her claims, but the Tajik Foreign Ministry says representatives of the country's embassy in Riyadh did establish that Asanalishoyeva “had been living and working in difficult conditions” and faced “hostile treatment” by her employers.
“I wanted to leave but the family demanded that I first reimburse the $2,000 they said they had paid to the employment agency,” Asanalishoyeva says.
One day in May, after having suffered a beating earlier in the month, Asanalishoyeva says she called police.
Unable to speak Arabic, Asanalishoyeva says she had to call police some 30 times, “asking them to find someone who speaks English.”
Asanalishoyeva says that police did arrive eventually, and took her to the office of the employment agency.
Despite living in Jeddah for several months, Asanalishoyeva had little knowledge of the city because she says she wasn't allowed to venture out on her own.
Well aware of her "illegal" status in Saudi Arabia, Asanalishoyeva says she does not intend to pursue legal action against the family over the alleged abuse and irregular payments.
Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry said on May 31 that Asanalishoyeva had been transferred to the country's embassy in Riyadh, where Tajik diplomats were working to prepare documents to send her back home.
The embassy has obtained Asanalishoyeva's passport from the employment agency, the ministry said.
Saudi Arabia is a relatively new labor migration destination for Tajiks and there are no official estimates about the number of Tajik nationals currently working in the kingdom.
Tajikistan does not have a bilateral agreement on job quotas with Saudi authorities, Tajik officials say.
Tajikistan in 2008 rejected an offer by Saudi employment agencies to provide work visas and employment opportunities for 300 male drivers as well as 200 positions for domestic workers to Tajik women under 25. Tajikistan's then-employment minister, Shukurjon Zuhurov, turned down the offer, criticizing the age requirement by the Saudi agencies.
Tajik prosecutors are currently investigating two Tajik employment agencies allegedly involved in sending workers to Gulf states, where Tajik authorities believe labor migrants often face exploitation.
Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf Arab countries have long been criticized for failing to protect foreign workers' rights amid widespread reports of abuse.
Shamsia Asanalishoyeva says she wants her story to serve as a warning to other Tajik women.
