http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=61685&d=6&m=4&y=2005
Wednesday, 6, April, 2005 (26, Safar, 1426) New Measures Needed to Protect the Interests of Housemaids Raid Qusti, [EMAIL PROTECTED] The story of an Indonesian maid, Nour Miyati, whose gangrenous fingers were amputated after she was brutally beaten and locked in a bathroom by her employer, should have made shock waves in the Kingdom's press but it didn't. Had this barbarity happened to any other person - maid or not - anywhere else in the world, it would have resulted in a journalistic frenzy and would surely have been front-page news in most newspapers. For some inexplicable reason, the story was buried on the inside pages of a handful - not even all - the Kingdom's Arabic dailies. The implication was clear that the story did not deserve much attention; only the Kingdom's English papers played it up. As with the story of Rania Al-Baz, the Saudi TV announcer who was brutally beaten and strangled by her husband, the maid's story represents just a few of the hundreds of cases that never get into the media or receive any attention at all. Nour Miyati is not alone out there. There are thousands of other housemaids who are subjected to torture, violence and injustice in the Kingdom. If we look at the official figures from the Indonesian Embassy this year, over 800 cases of Indonesian maids being abused or harassed have been reported to the embassy. These of course are the cases that the embassy is aware of. One cannot imagine how large the number would be if it included all the maids who have been abused and mistreated. There are those who suffer in silence and cannot get to the embassy to seek justice. There are plenty of inhuman employers in the Kingdom who think that by employing a maid, they have gained a slave to do their bidding at any time, in any place, under any circumstances. If one looks carefully at the treatment of maids in Saudi households, a sad story will be revealed. To begin with, maids who are brought to the Kingdom by recruiting offices never sign a contract in which the first party (the sponsor) promises to pay the salary on time at the end of the month and to treat her in a humane way, not violating Islamic principles, and not to ask her to work beyond a certain number of hours that both the sponsor and the maid agree on. The signed contract should also state that the sponsor must give the maid a day-off every week and provide her access to a telephone should she wish to seek the advice or help of her consulate or embassy. The contract should also make clear exactly what the maid's responsibilities are. The contract - with the signatures of both sponsor and maid - should then be approved by the maid's embassy where a copy will be on file and where the sponsor's contact numbers are listed. The maid should also be given the numbers of her consulate and embassy. Further, the embassy of the maid's country should establish a direct link with Saudi authorities in case of an emergency, violation or injustice which results in the sponsor's being called in and interrogated by the authorities. What happens in reality, however, is entirely different. The employer approaches the recruitment office asking for a maid of a particular age and nationality. After filling in the required forms, submitting the necessary papers and paying the charges, the maid arrives at the airport after a couple of months. The office then contacts the sponsor and asks him to pick up the maid after signing a few papers. The maid arrives at a strange house in a strange country not knowing what rights she has or whether she is entitled to object to certain conditions. All she knows is what she was told by the recruiter in her own country: That she will be working for a Saudi family and that her salary will be SR800 a month. Beyond that, she has been told nothing. The maid is then in the sponsor's house at the mercy of him and his family. Without no contact numbers and no contract stating her duties and responsibilities or the duties and responsibilities of her sponsor, her happiness or sadness depends on whether her employers fear God and whether they treat her humanely. If her employer is just, she is paid on time and treated as a member of the family. If not, she will beg for her salary and might end up working 20 hours a day in the most oppressive and inhuman environment. She might be treated as a slave. Her suffering, most likely, will be in silence; caught between being patient and thinking of her loved ones back home for whom she is enduring all this, she has no time to seek dignity or justice. Unless the Ministry of Labor or the Recruitment Office and the embassies of countries from which Saudis bring maids draft a new law under which a contract must be signed fulfilling the conditions I have mentioned above, the injustice toward maids in the Kingdom will continue. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Help save the life of a child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/mGEjbB/5WnJAA/E2hLAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. 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