Saudis to ease foreign workers' rules

After working for a year without a day off, Eva, a 37-year-old Filipino housekeeper in Riyadh, wanted a vacation. Her employer thought otherwise, and demanded SR8,000 ($2,139) to obtain her exit visa.

"I just wanted to go home to see my children,'' says Eva, who asked that her surname be withheld. "Madame agreed to sign my exit visa only after I threatened to kill myself."

Saudi Arabia, along with most Arab Gulf states, applies a kafala , or sponsorship, system in which 8m foreign residents, from investment bankers to house maids, work under a sponsor/employer, known as kafeel. The sponsor is responsible for the resident, and must approve exit visas. Without the exit visa, no foreign resident of Saudi Arabia, not even the deceased, may leave.