Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder what happens to the maids and nannies etc when people flee Dubai/the Middle East

181 replies

morningmists · 12/03/2026 07:42

I saw news stories of lots of pets being left behind, but I can't see any mention of the maids and nannies etc ? I am guessing it wouldn't always be simple to get them to England due to visas etc -so do they get booked on flights back to their homes?

My mum had a nanny growing up and she loved her as much as she loved her mum so I imagine this is a hard separation for some

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
StormySpanielz · 12/03/2026 08:00

morningmists · 12/03/2026 07:56

Wow!

I guess it's quite different from my mum's relationship with her nanny who really was another family member and who was a bonus grandmother to me. I'm smiling just remembering her now

Show quote history

Was this in Dubai though, or a similar economy effectively fuelled by modern day slavery?

Sprawling · 12/03/2026 07:57

Truetoself · 12/03/2026 07:48

what would you do if your employer suddenly shuts up shop and leave the country and you without a job?

The maids/ nannies will either find other employment or go back to their countries

Generally their visa ties them to a specific employer, who is required to repatriate them if they stop employing them. I don’t know if it’s still the case, but it used to be that employers held onto their maid’s passport so she couldn’t ‘abscond’, and only gave it to her after escorting her to the airport for her flight home. (The kafala system is supposed to have been reformed in recent years.)

Original poster
morningmists · 12/03/2026 07:56

Sprawling · 12/03/2026 07:54

I wouldn’t sentimentalise it too much. When I lived there, employers were continually discovering their maid wearing their clothes or in the hot tub or in bed with their husbands or casting spells on the family dog and proudly recounting how they frogmarched her to the airport and watched, arms folded, as she cleared passport control.

Imagine exactly the kind of Mner who comes on here to recount how they ‘stood up for themselves’ when someone challenged them for the buggy space and then the whole bus burst into applause. Only they probably did actually fire the maid.

Wow!

I guess it's quite different from my mum's relationship with her nanny who really was another family member and who was a bonus grandmother to me. I'm smiling just remembering her now

OP posts:
Sprawling · 12/03/2026 07:54

I wouldn’t sentimentalise it too much. When I lived there, employers were continually discovering their maid wearing their clothes or in the hot tub or in bed with their husbands or casting spells on the family dog and proudly recounting how they frogmarched her to the airport and watched, arms folded, as she cleared passport control.

Imagine exactly the kind of Mner who comes on here to recount how they ‘stood up for themselves’ when someone challenged them for the buggy space and then the whole bus burst into applause. Only they probably did actually fire the maid.

Original poster
morningmists · 12/03/2026 07:51

I guess if I were their employer I would fund their flight home .

OP posts:
Truetoself · 12/03/2026 07:48

what would you do if your employer suddenly shuts up shop and leave the country and you without a job?

The maids/ nannies will either find other employment or go back to their countries

Swipe left for the next trending thread