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.
