IF you are a young Zimbabwean thinking of going to work as a menial labourer in Saudi Arabia or Lebanon (or Middle East in general), please think twice before you take that risk.
Chances are that you may be subjected to slavery, exploitation, racial and sexual abuse as well as public beatings, or in extreme cases, beheading.
Last week I watched a video clip, originally posted on a facebook page Free Middle East, but later circulated on social media, which showed the brutal treatment of an Eritrean immigrant worker by her Saud employers.
In the video the woman’s legs are tied to the roof and her body is left suspending (head-down) from the roof.
She is repeatedly whipped by the members of the family, who take turns to do so while ignoring her crying and pleading for mercy.
I do not know if the woman survived the horrific attack, but her brutal treatment highlights the practice of modern day slavery against black Africans by some Arabs.
It also shows how apartheid still exists in some Arab countries.
Other videos posted on the Free Middle East facebook page also showed a lot of migrant workers being abused.
In one post, the photograph of a badly burnt Filipino maid is shown followed by the post: “Today in Saudi Arabia, a Filipino maid has burns all over her body after her boss’ mother poured boiling water on her. 
“She also claims her employers deprived her of food.”
I am not sure if the photograph is related to an article published in May this year by the Independent (UK) newspaper.
The story read: “Saudi Arabia employer ‘pours boiling water’ on Filipino woman.”
The story was also accompanied by the image of a badly burnt Pilipino woman. According to the story, the maid was burnt by her boss because she had been slow in bringing coffee to her boss.
“The 23-year-old household service worker, from Pikit, North Cotabato, suffered burns to her back and legs after being doused with the scorching liquid in the incident in Riyadh on May 4.”
And as if that was not enough, the employers delayed taking her to hospital.
Those that are burnt or beaten are lucky because they are not killed.
Last year in December, the Horn Times published a story appealing for information about a 26-year-old, mentally ill Ethiopian woman, sentenced to death on December 24 2013 in Saudi Arabia.
She was accused of killing her employer’s child.
The paper wrote: “She does not remember her own name and no one knows for how long she has been subjected to severe abuse by her Saudi employers.
“No passport or travel document was found in her possession.
“The Horn Times is still trying to establish her real name and family address back home in Ethiopia.”
According to the Horn Times, about 100 executions are carried out in Saudi Arabia every year, mostly on immigrant housemaids.
In 2010, 27 housemaids were beheaded for wrongdoing against their employers. According to the Guardian Newspaper (January 2013) a Sri Lankan maid, Rizana Nafeek, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia in January last year amid allegations that she had killed her employer’s baby.
She denied killing the child who she said, died as a result of a choking accident.
But despite all this (barbaric treatment of migrant workers) and gross human rights abuse, Saudi Arabia remains a darling of the West.
In October 1995, in an article entitled, ‘Secret Saudi executions shame the West’, the UK’s Independent newspaper challenged the morality of Western governments which turn a blind eye to Saudi’s inhuman treatment of women in general and foreign domestic workers.
The paper argued: “The nature of the Islamic trials and the cruel methods of execution call into question the morality of the West’s military and political support for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
“Not a single Western embassy, however, is known to have protested at the beheading of women – nor at the increasingly ferocious lashing of hundreds of foreign female workers in the Gulf for alleged misdemeanours.”
In February 2010 a Saudi prince, Mr Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud killed his black servant Bandar Abdulaziz, then 32 years old, in a plush London hotel, the Landmark. Bandar Abdulaziz had been beaten and strangled and sexually abused.
Further, CCTV evidence had shown the Saudi prince attacking his servant on three separate occasions; twice in the hotel’s lift and on the third occasion the Prince was seen kicking Bandar outside a restaurant on the night of his death.
In prosecution, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, said, “It is clear that his abuse of Bandar was not confined simply to physical beatings.
“There is clear evidence, over and above the bite marks, that there was also a sexual element to his mistreatment of the victim.”
In an act which brings shame to Britain’s commitment to human rights, the Saudi Prince, who was found guilty of murder in London, was flown to Saudi Arabia as part of prison transfer to serve his life sentence there.
“Prince Saud has now returned to Saudi Arabia to serve the rest of his sentence. He was transferred in the same way that all prisoners are returned home and is the first prisoner to transfer under this arrangement,” an official from the Ministry of Justice told the Daily Mail in March 2013.
Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud is the grandson of the Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.
Last year, President Obama avoided Zimbabwe and Kenya during his African tour, amid allegations of human rights abuses.
However, this year in March the USA President visited Saud Arabia. Furthermore, Riyadh and Washington enjoy trade and military cooperation.  
Saudi Arabia abolished slavery in 1962, although it is widely practised.
So why do Saudis ill-treat their workers with impunity?
Writing for the Guardian Newspaper (January 13 2013), Gethin Chamberlain highlighted that slavery is still rife in that Arab country.
Some migrant workers are sentenced to death and beheaded for flimsy charges. He wrote: “Employers may accuse domestic workers, especially those from Indonesia, of witchcraft.
“Victims of rape and sexual assault are at risk of being accused of adultery and fornication.”
Similar views were shared by Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian writer who lives in the USA, in her interview with Al Jazeera (July 7 2013).
She said: “In many Arab nations, including Kuwait where I was born, workers are lured into menial jobs where their passports are confiscated upon arrival and they are forced into humiliating and often inhuman working conditions.”
So before you think of packing your bags to go and work in the Middle East, or Saud Arabia and Lebanon in particular, be aware of what may befall you in those countries where the enslavement of Africans is widely practised.