A bit of what happens in Kuwait..

This article was in the Kuwait Times, one of the local English papers, last week. It gives a great and informative look into some of the situations maids deal with while working here. It is important to remember that not all maids are facing employment situations such as this. Some are treated very well, but this is an example of a case of extremity.

Abusive sponsors attack official at maids' shelter

Published Date: July 05, 2011
By Ben Garcia, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: A Philippine Embassy labor official was attacked by five assailants at the embassy's premises on Sunday night whilst defending two Filipina housemaids who escaped from their abusive employers' home shortly before. The labor official was on duty at the Filipino housemaid shelter in Jabriya at the time of the attack. The five male assailants - three adults and two teenagers - who were identified by the women as members of their employers' families - rushed to the embassy upon discovering that the mai
ds had fled. The two housemaids arrived in a taxi minutes after the assailants.

On seeing the employers arguing with embassy staff at the gate, the two traumatized women attempted to rush inside the embassy, but were prevented from doing so by the five men, who grabbed the women by their hair and punched them in the heads and stomachs in front of horrified embassy personnel. The assailants then announced that two women were 'their' housemaids, accusing the women of stealing money from the family's home.

The commotion continued for a few minutes, with the five attackers then directing their rage at the embassy official who was guarding the gate and protecting the housemaids. The man was badly beaten, sustaining heavy bruising and swelling to his body and forehead.

The two women escaped from their employer's house in Jabriya at around 9:00 pm on Sunday, risking their lives by using an improvised rope made by tying blankets and bed sheets together to lower themselves to the ground from a third-floor room. The two traumatized housemaids, identified only by their nicknames "Jenny" and "Maria", were effectively imprisoned by their employers, locked inside the family's home for months.

Maria, 31, had not been paid since she began her second stint working for the family in January this year, whilst Jenny, 28, had been unpaid since starting work there three months later, in April. The two assert that they were regularly subjected to brutal abuse, torture and beatings by both the male sponsor and his wife.

Both of them hit us, especially when there was something wrong with our jobs; they would beat us using belts and cooking pans or whatever hard objects they could find close to them," recalled Maria. "They would also hit our head against the concrete wall. The 'mama' hates dust or any tiny amount of dirt on the table; I think, we scrubbed their house more than 100 times a day. I also used to wash clothes with bare hands so I have this allergy to chemicals. Really, we were suffering severely in that house a
nd we couldn't take it anymore, that is why we just decided to escape in whatever way we could.

Maria explained that she was first hired as a maid by the family in late 2009, although during her first stint with them, she was paid regularly. Since her first week working for them, she endured hard slaps and beatings, with another Filipina housemaid, "Leah", who began working there towards the end of 2010, enduring similar physical and verbal abuse. Leah, after two months of abuse and having received no pay, eventually convinced Maria to attempt escape with her.

During their attempt, however, using an improvised rope, Maria slipped and fell to the ground, breaking a leg. Although the maids managed to get away and Maria was taken to hospital, the employers subsequently filed a case against the traumatized women, accusing them of theft, an accusation which both categorically denied.

In January, whilst Maria were recovering at the embassy's refuge, her erstwhile employers visited the embassy and set about persuading Maria that they regretted their abusive treatment and wished for her to return. Reluctant but desperate for money, Maria went back to work for them. Leah remained unconvinced of their remorse and chose instead to remain at the refuge where she is still living pending the outcome of the theft case.

Maria quickly discovered that her sponsors' promises of kind treatment were wholly false, with the abusive employers redoubling their maltreatment in revenge for her escape. The three months until Jenny's arrival in April were an endless stream of abuse and backbreaking hard work, with Jenny also receiving the same treatment from the moment of her arrival until the two women fled.

I haven't been paid since I began working for this family in April," Jenny told Kuwait Times. "Every day we used to be addressed with cruel words, beaten and sworn at. They even told us that they could kill us at any time without anyone knowing about it. We used to work from 5:00 am until 2:00 am the next morning." As one example of the treatment they received, Jenny said, "We only had very little food - we ate once a day.

Both flatly rejected the sponsors' theft accusations against them. "How could we steal?" asked Jenny. "It was never true. We heard them saying if they wanted to create a problem against us [they could]; they told us that the authorities here would believe them rather than us. And how could we 'steal' money when in fact they weren't giving us our salaries for months?!

The Philippine Labor Attache to Kuwait, David Des Dicang, has promised to pursue the case of his country's mistreated workers. He said that he would take legal action against the five assailants for trespassing and assault on Filipino embassy personnel. "The case will be pursued till the end," he vowed. "The embassy, under the leadership of our ambassador, Shulan Primavera, is mandated to protect and defend our workers.

The embassy official who was beaten up at our premises will be dealt accordingly. We are happy that we have an official like him who can defend our workers when necessary. He tried to protect our workers and he was beaten up because of that. It is also totally unacceptable since it happened inside our own premises. The case is now in the prosecutor's office.

On the assailants' abuse of the housemaids, Dicang said that their case would be handled with the proper seriousness. "We will pursue not just their employer but we'll see in what way we can act against their local recruitment agency and hold them accountable," he said. He asserted that there are many questions left unanswered: "Why was the employer able to re-hire runaway housemaids despite his bad records?" he asked, adding "We will review all the possible angles until real justice is served.