Migrant-Rights, great pieces all the time.
Original link
here.
Though several new labor agreements were reached this November, the
month remains characterized by several atrocities against migrant
workers. Below we recapitulate the select cases registered in official
records:
In Saudi Arabia, an employer
clubbed a maid to death. He also attacked another maid at the scene, as well as his own wife. Another maid returned home from Saudi after
suffering a mysterious fall in the home of her abusive employer.
In Bahrain, an employer assaulted a Bangaldeshi worker with a wooden
plank following a dispute. The article detailing the crime was recently
removed from Gulf Daily News.
In Kuwait,
a Filipina domestic worker
retained a broken spine and and fractured leg after jumping from a
second-floor apartment to escape human traffickers. The worker had been
abused and underpaid by her sponsor, who then sold her to an agency to
recuperate the cost of her recruitment. She was placed into an apartment
with other female migrant workers, and two Sri Lankan men. The men were
human traffickers, who had tried to assault the maid prior to her
attempted escape. The men then took the woman back to their apartment,
and notified her sponsor in order for her to medical attention – two
days after her life-threatening accident.
Still in Kuwait, an Ethiopian housemaid
attempted suicide by overdosing. In Lebanon, an Ethiopian domestic worker succeeded in committing suicide by
jumping from her employer’s balcony. Suicide is almost always the result of sponsor abuse.
Several cases involving employers and migrant workers were also tried this month. In one case, the defendant is accused of
imprisoning and forcing a domestic worker into prostitution. In a second case, an employer is accused of
several horrifying acts
against an Ethiopian maid that ultimately led to her death; justifying
her behavior by the maid’s “lazyness,” the employer whipped her, rubbed
pepper in her eyes, tied her up with electrical wire, and doused her
with boiling water. The woman’s burns became infected, eventually
leading to her death.
In Oman, an
employer violently reacted
to a Sri Lankan maid’s demand for wages. The sponsor hit Mulia Nona in
the head with a sharp object and punched her in the ears, causing
seemingly permanent hearing loss. Nona, who had been abused for years,
escaped to the Sri Lankan embassy in October. Authorities are now
prosecuting her case.
In another case, the Indonesian rights association MigrantCare
organized an autopsy of a domestic worker
who died in Saudi Arabia last year. The autopsy revealed that the
worker, Narul Khasanah, suffered from a cut wrist, as well as bruises
and tears on her temple, thighs, and ears.
A number of reports produced this month also profiled migrant worker abuse in the region. An
EqualTimes.org feature published
an extensive piece on domestic worker abuse in light of the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The
article highlights several stories from the past year and discusses
conditions female migrants face in the absence of significant legal
protections.
Additionally, a
report produced by Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat
details the trafficking and torturing of East African Migrants in
Yemen. Reuters featured a troubling photograph of a lacerated Ethiopian
migrant
here.
