Crude burial of 22-year-old highlights plight of female migrant workers in Saudi Arabia

Like many women from Madagascar, 22-year-old Mélanie emigrated to Saudi Arabia to work as a maid. When a video of this young woman’s burial in Saudi Arabia was posted online on March 15, it shocked people across Madagascar. It wasn’t just her brutal death, it was also because the footage showed a bulldozer being used to shovel dirt on her grave, a horrific sight for anyone from Madagascar, where burial rites are sacred. Human rights organizations are speaking out about the vicious human trafficking bringing domestic workers from East Africa to Gulf countries.

AZIG, a French-Malagasy organisation that provides administrative and psychological support to domestic workers from Madagascar and other African countries in the Gulf, contacted the FRANCE 24 Observers team about this video. Like many other Malagasy domestic workers in the Gulf states (the seven Arab countries that border the Persian Gulf) Mélanie was in contact with Carrozza Heliarisoa, AZIG’s coordinator, who is based in France.  

English | April 5, 2021

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