Munira, a young Ghanaian woman, shared her heartbreaking experience working as a house help in various Gulf countries during an interview with DJ Nyaami on SVTV Africa’s Daily Hustle Gh.
According to Munira, her struggles began early in life. She started fending for herself at the age of 13 and later traveled to Saudi Arabia at 15 through an agent, but wasn’t paid for her work. She returned to Ghana and was introduced to another agent who promised to send her to Bangkok, Thailand. Munira paid and received her visa, but when she arrived at the airport, she realized she had been deceived—the destination was Syria, not Thailand.
Munira was just 17 when she arrived in Syria with ten other Ghanaian girls. “I wasn’t scared at first, but when we landed and I collapsed, I knew things were bad. The country was at war,” she recalled. She was later taken to a house where she saw guns and lived in fear. Though she worked for a year, she was never paid. “They only gave me accommodation. I saw bombs, killings, and had to sleep on blocks of ice because of the heat.”
Out of the eleven girls who made the trip, only four survived. “Some went mad, some got severely ill, and others died,” she said. Her own health deteriorated, and at one point, she began vomiting blood and bleeding through her nose. Despite this, she was denied medical attention. She resorted to home remedies to survive.
Life in Syria was like prison. “They seized our phones, and if you complained about your salary, they could poison you,” she explained. Though she was promised $350 monthly, she only received $200. One Ghanaian girl was even arrested and jailed for a year after her madam planted gold in her bag. The absence of a Ghanaian embassy made matters worse, leaving the girls vulnerable.
Munira sent $2,000 to her uncle in Ghana to keep in her account. Sadly, he squandered the money and cut off contact. “My mom advised I send it to him, but he disappeared with it,” she lamented.
Eventually, she made it back to Ghana and tried to rebuild her life. She opened a small food joint inside a container, selling drinks, shawarma, pizza, and other fast foods. Initially, business was slow, but it picked up with time. However, her store owner reclaimed the space, claiming Munira’s business was affecting her sister’s sales in a nearby provision shop. The shop owner refunded her rent and Munira was forced to leave.
Now living in the village with her mother, Munira still suffers from health issues due to the trauma she endured. “I can’t walk long distances, and the money we earned over there is useless now. Most of us came back with nothing,” she said.
She ended with a passionate plea: “I beg Ghana Immigration to stop agents from sending people to countries like Syria where there’s no Ghanaian embassy. I will never go to an Arab country again—they are wicked people. Many Ghanaians are still trapped there, suffering.”
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