Where’s Edelyn? The search for the Filipina maid who vanished in Saudi Arabia

Mired in debt, the mother of three left to work as part of the Gulf's kafala labour system. She was last heard from in 2015 and her family want answers

Edelyn Eborda Astudillo wanted a better life for her three children. The 36-year-old from Mariveles in the Philippines, and her husband, Crisanto, had been unemployed for six years and things were getting desperate. So, in early 2015, Edelyn made the decision to travel to the Middle East to get a job as a domestic worker.

After applying to a Philippine recruitment agency, Manumoti Manpower, Edelyn was soon on a flight abroad. She was placed in a house to work for a couple in Taif, in the west of Saudi Arabia.