![28 year old Reyhana Begum, who is preparing to work as a housekeeper in Saudi Arabia, poses for a photo in her home with her children March 14, 2016 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reyhana currently makes around 1,500-3,000 ($19.15-$38.30) taka per month working as a tailor, and her husband makes 5,000-6,000 ($63.83-$76.60) taka per month working as a rickshaw puller. She expects to earn 22,000 taka ($280.86) per month in Saudi Arabia, which she says she will put towards her daughters dowry and son's education. [Allison Joyce/Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/GettyImages-515730290.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The number of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia increased by 14 per cent in the last quarter of 2019, nearing four million, Al-Eqtisadiah reported yesterday.
The agency added that there were “nine different types of domestic workers in the kingdom.”
There were 3.69 million domestic workers in Saudi during the last three months of 2019 , compared to 3.22 million in the three months prior, marking an increase of 465,000 workers.
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During that period, the newspaper pointed out, drivers made up 55 per cent of the total number of domestic workers in the kingdom, amounting to a total of 2.02 million workers.
Maids and housekeeping workers ranked the second largest share among the nine groups of domestic workers, the newspaper noted.
![Maids being abused in Gulf countries - Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/m2018-11-2018.jpg?resize=933%2C579&ssl=1)
Maids being abused in the Middle East – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]