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| Saudi Arabia: Migrant domestic staff killed by employers |
| 2007-08-17 |
| New York, August 17, 2007(AKI) – The killing of two Indonesian domestic workers by their employers in Saudi Arabia this month highlights the Saudi government’s ongoing failure to hold employers accountable for serious abuses, campaign group Human Rights Watch warned on Friday. Seven members of a Saudi family who employed four Indonesian women as domestic workers brutally beat them in early August after accusing them of practicing “black magic” on the family’s teenage son, HWR reported. Siti Tarwiyah Slamet, 32, and Susmiyati Abdul Fulan, 28, died from their injuries. Ruminih Surtim, 25, and Tari Tarsim, 27, are receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of Riyadh Medical Complex. Saudi authorities have detained the employers. "The brutal killings of these Indonesian domestic workers occurred in an atmosphere of impunity fostered by government inaction,” said Nisha Varia, senior researcher in HWR's Women’s Rights Division. “Not only do the authorities typically fail to investigate or prosecute abusive employers, the criminal justice system also obstructs abused workers from seeking redress,” she added. Approximately 2 million women from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and other countries are employed as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. They are routinely underpaid, overworked, confined to the workplace, or subject to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, according to HWR. The shocking case of the four Indonesian maids is symptomatic of wider abuse, HWR says. Besides being victims of abuse themselves, many domestic workers are subject to counteraccusations, including theft, adultery or charges of fornication in cases of rape or witchcraft. Saudi authorities and embassies of domestic workers’ home countries receive thousands of complaints of labor exploitation or abuse each year. Many more cases most likely go unreported, HWR said. During visits to Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka in November and December last year, Human Rights Watch interviewed Sri Lankan domestic workers sentenced to prison and whipping in Saudi Arabia after their employers had raped and impregnated them. An Indonesian domestic worker was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for witchcraft, commuted from an original death sentence. The Indonesian embassy did not learn about the arrest, detention or trial of the worker until one month after the sentencing. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #2 Killing your domestic staff rather than firing them is more convenient in that you do not have to bother with severance pay or unemployment claims. However, you then need to hire another maid to dispose of the bodies. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2007-08-17 10:28 |
| #1 We employed several Philippino maids over a 7 year period in Singapore. The practice is probably better regulated in Singapore than anywhere else. For example, conviction for any kind of physical abuse of a maid meant an automatic prison sentence (minimum 6 months), and there was a steady stream of stories in the press about maid abuse. Our maid had a room with its own entrance on the side of the house and we took the attitude, if she did her job, then her life was her business. As a result our house became Maid Central for the neighbourhood, with constant stream of them coming to tell their tales of woe. On several occasions, chinese neighbours came to complain that their maids had been sneaking out to come to our house. My response was predicable, i.e. piss off. I hate to think what happens in a place like SA. Whatever you read will just be the tip of a very large iceburg. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-08-17 09:11 |