UAE Sees Rise in Demand for Part-Time Filipino Maids
DUBAI: Filipinos remain the top choice as Ramadan has witnessed an increase in demand for part-time maids in the UAE as there is acute shortage of domestic help in the Holy Month, according to a media report.
Recruitment agencies, manpower supply and cleaning companies were quoted as saying by Gulf News that UAE households hire part-time maids during Ramadan as there are not many domestic help available in the UAE.
Rudi Holean, client relations manager at MaidCV.com, reportedly said the demand for part-time maids has increased by about 25 per cent since the beginning of Ramadan.
“There is a noted increase for part-time maids during Ramadan. In the long run, it’s going to be expensive to hire part-time maids but that is the only solution for the meantime,” Holean reportedly told the Dubai-based news portal.
Household workload typically increases during Ramadan for the daily iftar preparations and cleaning, the report said.
Holean reportedly said Filipino maids remain the most in demand followed by Indians and Sri Lankans. People have also started showing interest in hiring maids from African countries, although there are very few takers.
Shoukat Ali, who owns Al Sanabil Manpower Supply, reportedly said that since Filipino and Indonesian maids cannot be hired from their home countries, he has tried hiring maids from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Other companies have maids from Cameroon, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Eritrea.
The demand for maids is also fuelled by the “slow months of summer” when families usually send their maids home for their holiday, it was pointed out.
“Lots of maids are sent away for their holiday during summer. Families hire temporary replacements to cope with the summer months and during Ramadan. Inquiries have tripled in the past two weeks,” Steven Barker, CEO of Home Safe, a company that provides maids and cleaning services, reportedly said.
Traditional labor-sending countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Ethiopia and Nepal have stopped sending maids to the UAE due to conflicting recruitment rules, reported Gulf News.
A top Philippine labour official, however, said talks between the UAE and the Philippines have resumed to solve the Filipino maid shortage issue within the year, it added.