Some Nigerian women employed as domestic workers in Iraq are enduring severe abuse and exploitation, with activists likening their situation to a form of “modern slavery.”
Their stories reveal a horrific reality of daily physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, all under the guise of promises for better opportunities abroad.
Agnes, a 27-year-old woman from Nigeria, is one such victim. She describes the excruciating pain she suffers due to a traumatic experience, with no access to medical care and no way to return home, Aljazeera reports.
Agnes’s tale reflects the broader trend of Nigerian women deceived into working as domestic labourers in Iraq, where they are subjected to inhumane treatment.
Agnes’s ordeal began in March 2024, in the Iraqi city of Basra, where her employer raped her at gunpoint, leading to a forced abortion. Since the incident, she has endured persistent abdominal pain, and despite her suffering, the recruitment agency that brought her to Iraq has refused to help or send her home.
“I just want to go home and treat myself, but I can’t do that,” Agnes told Al Jazeera over the phone from Basra, speaking in a broken voice. “The man has refused to pay my salary.”
“I don’t know if I am pregnant, but I have not seen my menstruation since then. I just want to go home and check myself and see what’s happening inside me,” she added.
Agnes, who asked for anonymity out of fear of retaliation, is one of many Nigerian women trapped in a system of abuse orchestrated by local recruiting agents. These agents promise a better life abroad, often convincing women to leave their homes in rural Nigeria with the hope of earning better wages.
However, when they arrive in Iraq, the reality is starkly different. The women are assigned to work in homes or institutions, where they are often forced to work 20-hour days for minimal pay, typically between $200 and $250 per month.
The exploitation begins as soon as these women arrive in Iraq, where they are often mistreated by both their employers and the recruitment agencies.
Once there, the Iraqi firms ask the women to sign two-year contracts and assign them to families or labour-intensive institutions like spas.
In many homes, the women are subject to inhumane treatment: they go days without food, are beaten, and are not provided living quarters.
Agnes’s journey to Iraq began with a dream of better opportunities. From Nigeria’s Ekiti state, she was working as a domestic worker when she heard about the opportunity to work abroad.
She paid 100,000 naira ($64) to a local agent, a family friend, trusting the promise of better wages. She said she thought she could make money there to send money to her sick mother and young son.
Her departure from Lagos in September 2023 was supposed to be the start of a better life.
However, the reality of her new life in Iraq shattered those hopes. Upon arrival, Agnes was shocked by the conditions she faced. She was assigned to a home where she was severely mistreated.
She wasn’t given food regularly and her boss would force me to work all day, and her phone was seized. When she complained, her employer returned her to the recruiting firm, demanding a refund.
Agnes was then beaten by two men from the firm, who punished her for “causing a loss.” “I had to use a bandage on my eye for three days,” she said, showing the visible signs of the violence she endured.
Agnes was then sent to another employer, where the situation became even worse. She was raped by her new boss, which led to the forced abortion that left her with ongoing pain.
She was abandoned by the same employer, who refused to pay her six months’ salary and left her stranded at the recruitment agency’s hostel.
“If I knew what this country is like, I wouldn’t have come here. If I knew it’s not safe and there is no respect for life, I wouldn’t have come. I just thought I could also come here and hustle. Please help me get out of here,” she pleaded.
At the hostel, Agnes and other women continue to suffer in silence. Although they are provided with basic food, the women fear the staff, who have been known to beat or lock up those who defy the agency’s orders.
Agnes’s case is not unique. Other Nigerian women in Iraq have faced similar treatment. Eniola, another domestic worker, shared her harrowing experience of being tortured and abused by her employer.
Eniola arrived in Baghdad in February 2023, eager for the opportunity to earn money. However, her employer forced her to work long hours and subjected her to daily physical abuse.
She complained that the woman routinely tortured her with tasers or hit me with an iron rod.
She doused her with hot tea or water on several occasions too. After more than a year of suffering, Eniola finally escaped in August, bleeding and bruised.
“She had just beat me when she put some water on the fire and told me to enter the bathroom,” Eniola told Al Jazeera. She feared her boss wanted to pour hot water on her, so she fled. “I don’t know where I got the courage, but I ran outside.”
She sought help from local people, who took her to a police station.
According to an official at the Directorate for Residence Affairs, which handles residency violations and is now overseeing Eniola’s case, the employer in question has been summoned for questioning and is under investigation.
Eniola recently appeared in court alongside her former employer and received a year’s worth of back pay. Despite the opportunity to press charges, Eniola chose not to pursue legal action against the Iraqi woman, expressing her desire to return home.
Authorities have reportedly planned to compel the employer to cover Eniola’s travel expenses, although a timeline for this arrangement has not been disclosed.
The official also mentioned that several other Nigerian women are currently being detained for various infractions, including altercations with employers, visa violations, and alleged salary fraud. However, some Nigerian domestic workers have alleged that their Iraqi employers often exploit language barriers and falsely accuse them of wrongdoing.
The abuse faced by African domestic workers in Iraq is part of a broader pattern of exploitation across the Middle East. Migrant workers, particularly women, are often trapped in abusive situations due to the “kafala” system, which gives employers significant control over their employees’ lives.
Employers use this control to seize workers’ passports, deny them their wages, and force them into slave-like conditions.
“It’s a form of modern slavery,” said Damilola Adekola, co-founder of Hopes Haven Foundation, a Nigerian NGO that has been working to track and report on the abuse of Nigerian women in the Middle East.
In addition to the physical abuse, the lack of proper documentation and oversight from Nigerian authorities has left many of these women vulnerable. Activists have called on the Nigerian government to take action, ensuring that women are properly registered and monitored before they leave the country.
“Immigration is never a crime, and we are not saying people should not find work abroad, but there should be a government system where these women are registered and taxed, even if it’s a small token,” Adekola suggested.
This would allow the government to monitor the women’s safety and working conditions, providing a level of protection.
Despite laws against labour trafficking, Iraq remains a hotspot for the exploitation of African domestic workers.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that over 221,000 people in Iraq are currently in slavery-like conditions, with many victims coming from countries like Nigeria.
Yet, the exploitation continues, with Nigerian women like Agnes and Eniola trapped in a cycle of abuse, unable to escape.
For Agnes, the situation remains dire. “I’m barely alive,” she said, pleading for help to return home. “I just want to go home because I’m not OK.” As new women arrive in Iraq, they are forced to work under similar conditions, with no end in sight.
Agnes’s hope for escape lies in the hands of authorities, but until then, she remains trapped in a nightmare of her own making, desperate for a way out.
