http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=89639&d=6&m=12&y=2006&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
Wednesday, 6, December, 2006 (16, Dhul Qa`dah, 1427) Delayed Payment Is Most Common Maid Complaint Maha Akeel, Arab News RIYADH, 6 December 2006 - A senior representative of the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), currently in Saudi Arabia on a fact-finding mission, visited the Indonesian Embassy yesterday to investigate the problems of abused maids. Nisha Varia, senior researcher in HRW's women's rights division, met officials at the embassy and spoke to some of the maids, including Nour Miyati. She also visited the safe house where maids live while their cases are being processed. She told Arab News that while the media tends to focus on physical and sexual abuse, the most common complaint she heard was of delayed payment of salaries. HRW is on a three-week visit to Saudi Arabia and its members are meeting senior government officials, organizations and individuals. The main issues they are focusing on include the criminal justice system, political rights, women's and children's rights and foreign workers' rights. "We are very happy to be here and meet officials. We hope to get access to prisons, detention centers and welfare centers without the presence of officials," said Varia. The delegation originally consisted of nine people but four now remain to conduct the research. Varia met some Indonesian maids who had suffered physical or sexual abuse, but the majority complained of not receiving their salaries on time. Another problem is that maids are often locked in houses which could be life-threatening in case of fire. She met Nour Miyati who was abused by her sponsor causing her to lose fingers and toes due to gangrene. "It is a sad case. Although it is an extreme case of abuse, it is not an isolated one," said Varia. Three weeks ago when she was in Sri Lanka she met a maid who had just returned from Saudi Arabia and she had multiple scars on her body, had been deprived of food and severely abused. "One of my main concerns is that in many cases if a foreign worker is detained, it takes a long time to inform the appropriate embassy," said Varia. The process is to inform the Ministry of Interior, then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then the relevant embassy, but the process may take weeks or months, according to Varia. "The worker should have access to his or her embassy within 24 hours, according to the Geneva Convention, in order for the embassy to provide translators and legal advice. Sometimes the worker is questioned, sent to court and prison before seeing an official from the embassy," said Varia. She will visit the embassies of laborers from other countries working here such as India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Another problem is that the amount of time it takes to resolve cases. The maids are naturally anxious to return home after such traumatic experiences. Nour Miyati's case, for example, has been in the courts for over a year. "It would send a strong message if abusers are imprisoned and people are held accountable for their crimes," said Varia. She found that it was very difficult for maids to access the justice system considering that they are often locked in houses and may not be allowed access to telephones. "By the time they are able to run away and complain to the police, their wounds might have healed and it becomes difficult to collect evidence," she said. There is also the issue of labor complaints not being covered by the existing labor laws and therefore the maids have no protection. "The Minister of Labor said that they are adding an appendix to the labor code pertaining to domestic workers. We are focusing on them being allowed one rest day in the week, defining the working hours and most importantly, paying their wages every month on time," said Varia. Last year the ministry announced new regulations for recruiting household workers, but the rules pertained mainly to who is eligible to recruit. Ahmad Al-Zamil, deputy minister for labor affairs, stressed that the ministry would deny the right to employ domestic servants to any household that mistreats its workers in any way and would force employers to pay the servants' expenses back to their home countries. However, he made it clear that the ministry would not interfere in cases of sexual or physical abuse of maids as the security forces or regional authorities are responsible for such matters. Varia said it was difficult to estimate the number of abused individuals since many are never reported. Arab News spoke to sources at the Indonesian Embassy who said they receive about 10 complaints from maids every day. Most of them involve abuse and include severe beatings, suicide, kidnapping, rape, withholding of salary for months and years, sexual harassment and impregnation. "Unfortunately, people here are very cruel to maids. They treat them with suspicion and abuse them in many ways. Even when we file a complaint on behalf of a maid or ask for information on a case at the police, the police treat the matter with disdain," said an embassy source. The Indonesian Embassy, like all embassies in Riyadh, is located inside a high-security compound. While these security measures are understandable, they pose a problem for maids seeking help from their embassies. According to some maids, security personnel at the Diplomatic Quarter will not allow them to enter and instead take them to the police or to the maids' affairs administration at the Ministry of Labor, which most often return the maids to their sponsors or simply fail to help them. If the maid is able to reach the embassy, the embassy files the complaint and begins legal action. While the case is with the police or in the court, the maid goes to a legal safe house where she is taken care of. The number of maids in the safe-house varies from week to week. As one case is settled and the maid leaves, others come in. On an average, however, there are about 200 maids in the house. The HRW group will complete their research and record their observations and present their report to officials. "We hope to come back and share our research and open a dialogue in a transparent way. We hope to have an open invitation to come back as often as we want but have not received a concrete promise yet," said Varia. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! 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