11 / 19 /2010 - One more maid tortured.

http://www.migrant-rights.org/2010/11/19/indonesian-maid-tortured-in-saudi-arabia-another-beaten-to-death/

This week, two cases of severe abuse of Indonesian maids by their Saudi sponsors have surfaced, one of them ending in death and the other in serious injuries.

The first case, of 23-year-old Sumiati BT Salan Mustapa was first reported by the Saudi Gazette. This initial report mentioned that Mustapa arrived in Saudi-Arabia in July to work for a family in Madina. On November 6th Mustapa was admitted to a private hospital in Madina injured from head to toe in an unconscious state. The private hospital was unable to treat her serious injuries and she was transferred to the King Fahd hospital. A worker there told the Gazette that Mustapa’s body “was burned on many places, both legs were almost motionless, some parts of her skin on her head were removed and strong marks of old wounds were on her body including skin loss on lips and head, a fractured middle finger and a cut near an eye.” Mustapa also showed signs of malnutrition or excessive blood loss.

Didi Wahyudri, Indonesia’s citizen protection consul in Saudi Arabia told CNN that Mustapa was abused from the first day of her employment and that she was beaten badly. According to the Al-Watan newspaper report, “In room 365 at the orthopedic ward in King Fahd Hospital in Madina, Mustapa looked deformed as if her scalp had been peeled off….burns are scattered all over her lean body including her upper lip and fingers…she is bandaged all over and could hardly move or speak.”

Report in the online paper Al-Saudia said today (Friday) that Mustapa’s female employer was arrested in connection with the case. According to the Madina police chief, three members of the family were involved in the torture.

While the Saudi regime maintains that this is an “individual case” and that “the media have exaggerated the report”, a new story coming from the Saudi town of Abha puts this into question. According to CNN, on November 11th the body of an Indonesian maid, Kikim Komalasari, was found with signs of serious physical abuse on the streets of Abha. According to Indonesian officials, the employer suspected in the attacks was arrested by Saudi authorities.

These stories of abuse are of the most extreme kind migrant workers endure in Saudi-Arabia, but abuse is not rare. When employers are given unrestricted powers over their workers in the Saudi sponsorship system, this creates an opportunity for abuse. Migrant workers cannot change sponsors even in cases of abuse, but the sponsors can have the workers repatriated at will, or prevent them from leaving the country. Domestic workers are also excluded from the protection Saudi Arabia’s labor laws offer. This abuse happens because little is done to prevent it.

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Sumiati lies in a hospital bed in Saudi Arabia. Her employer is accused of cutting off part of her lips with scissors, scalding her back with an iron, fracturing her middle finger, and beating her legs until she could hardly walk

May 2008 - Maid with fingers amputated due to abuse get 600 USD as compensation

Abused Indonesian Maid Gets Paltry Compensation

JEDDAH, 21 May 2008 — A High Court judge in Riyadh, on Monday, awarded SR2,500 in compensation to Nour Miyati, an Indonesian maid whose toes and fingers were amputated following alleged abuse by her sponsor and his wife.

Reviewing a previous ruling, the judge also dropped charges against the wife of Miyati’s sponsor, who had admitted abusing the maid, and overturned the 35 lashes she was sentenced to. Meanwhile, the sponsor was found innocent due to a lack of evidence.

“According to the judge, there was not enough evidence,” said Nasser Al-Dandani, the lawyer appointed by the Indonesian Embassy to represent the maid.

Miyati’s case came to light after her sponsor brought her to a Riyadh hospital in March 2005, afflicted by gangrene in her fingers, toes and a part of her right foot.

She initially claimed her sponsor tied her up for a month in a bathroom and beat her severely, injuring her eyes and knocking out some of her teeth.

However, investigators — who questioned her without the presence of Indonesian Embassy representatives, lawyers or members of the National Society for Human Rights — later claimed the maid had changed her testimony.

Miyati was, subsequently, charged with making false accusations and imprisoned for a few days.

She was then transferred to a shelter at Nahda Women’s Charity Society where, according to social worker Hind Al-Ismaili, she could not take proper care of herself because of her injuries.

It was then that Al-Dandani secured her release from the shelter.

Miyati’s case was delayed several times as her sponsor and his wife repeatedly failed to attend court hearings, prompting the Riyadh Principality to issue an order forcing them to come.

According to sources, the sponsor adopted several tactics to disrupt the case, including a threat to file a SR1 million defamation suit against the maid.

Further to this, in December 2005, a judge at the Court of Summation sentenced Miyati to 79 lashes for making false accusations against her sponsor and his wife — a ruling that was reversed in April 2006.

Speaking about the ruling, Al-Dandani said, “The judge did not consider the injuries and amputations had been caused by the sponsor and his wife despite the medical report… He did not take into consideration that she had not been paid her salary for 18 months, that she was in good health when she came to work here and that when her toes and fingers turned gangrenous she was not taken to hospital early enough.

“Even her broken teeth, her injured eye, which doesn’t function properly, and hearing loss were not considered proof of abuse.”

Judges compensate injuries and lost limbs in car accidents and medical malpractice according to a standard value, he said, adding that according to some estimates, Miyati deserved at least SR400,000.

“Although, we did not ask for a specific amount, we expected it to be fair,” said Al-Dandani.

“The only thing the judge looked at was the report by a committee appointed by the court to evaluate compensations for accidents. This committee of four men did not once see Miyati or speak to her. I don’t know what they based their evaluation on and how the judge could accept that,” Al-Dandani added, saying that he will appeal the ruling at the Court of Cassations.

Source :

http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=110110&d=21&m=5&y=2008

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Saudi maid verdict 'outrageous'

Human Rights Watch has called on Saudi judges to overturn a decision to drop charges against a Saudi couple accused of severely abusing an Indonesian maid.

A judge in Riyadh awarded $670 damages to the maid, Nour Miyati, but dropped all charges against her employers.

The female employer, who admitted the abuse and was originally sentenced to 35 lashes, had her sentence overturned.

Human Rights Watch said the ruling on Monday was "outrageous", and sent "a dangerous message" to Saudi employers.

Ms Miyati, 25, contracted gangrene after allegedly being tied up for a month and left without food in 2005. She had to have several fingers and toes amputated.

New York-based Human Rights Watch called for an appeals court to "impose stiff penalties on the employers, including imprisonment, and payment of significant financial compensation".

Saudi officials have not commented on the report.

'Impunity'

Human Rights Watch says Ms Miyati was treated in a Riyadh hospital in March 2005 for gangrene, malnourishment and other injuries.

All charges against Ms Miyati's male employer were dropped early in the investigation, Human Rights Watch says.

On Monday a Riyadh judge found the female employer not guilty, despite her earlier admission and "compelling physical evidence", the group says.

A prior Saudi judgement, subsequently overturned, had seen Ms Miyati convicted of falsely accusing her employers and sentenced to 79 lashes.

Human Rights Watch said the latest ruling "sends a dangerous message to Saudi employers that they can beat domestic workers with impunity and that victims have little hope of justice".

Rights organisations say many foreign domestic maids in Saudi Arabia work in harsh circumstances and often suffer abuse by their employers.

The Saudi Labour Ministry has acknowledged some problems, but the government also says foreign workers' rights are protected under Islamic law.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7415290.stm

Published: 2008/05/22 15:47:39 GMT

11 19 10 Body of maid found in dumpster- Saudi Arabia

Body of Indonesian maid found in Abha dumptser

By ALI KOTARUMALOS | AP

Published: Nov 19, 2010 13:59 Updated: Nov 19, 2010 13:59

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Friday asked Saudi authorities to look into reports that one of its domestic workers was allegedly killed by her employer in Abha and thrown into a garbage bin — the second case of maid abuse to emerge this week.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was speaking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting called to discuss the need to protect hundreds of thousands of migrants who flock to the Middle East in search of work.

Too many, human rights groups say, face slavery-like conditions, torture, sexual abuse and even death.

Indonesian Minister of Labor Muhaimin Iskandar said an embassy team was dispatched to Abha to look into allegations the 36-year-old maid, Kikim Komalasari, had been killed by her bosses.

Her neck was slashed and she had severe cuts to the rest of her body, he said.

“It’s shocking to hear this ... it’s beyond inhumane,” Yudhoyono said, adding, however, he was encouraged so far by the Saudi government’s quick response. “I’m hopeful the perpetrators will be punished according to law.”

The report came as a team of Indonesian officials headed to the Mideast to seek justice and medical help for another maid, Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa, who has been hospitalized in Madinah since Nov. 8.

The 23-year-old’s employers allegedly burned her, broke her middle finger and cut her lips with scissors.

Earlier this week, New York-based group Human Rights Watch urged Mideastern countries to do more to protect domestic workers in their countries, saying a string of allegations point to a “broader pattern of abuse.” They were responding to reports that a Sri Lankan maid working in Jordan had been forced to swallow nails. Another maid employed in Kuwait claimed her employer drove nails into her body.

“The wanton brutality alleged in these cases is shocking,” said Nisha Varia, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, which called on authorities to investigate claims promptly and bring those responsible to justice.

http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article196004.ece

11 -14 -2010 Forced to swallow six nails

AFP - Sri Lanka is probing allegations that one of its nationals employed in Jordan was forced to swallow nails, in the third case involving alleged torture in three months, an official said Sunday.

A housemaid identified as D. M. Chandima has told the Sri Lankan diplomatic mission in Amman that her employer forced her to swallow six nails, an official at the Foreign Employment Bureau of Sri Lanka said.

"We are awaiting a full report from doctors," the head of the bureau, Kingsley Ranawaka, said adding that the authorities would decide on the next steps after looking at the medical evidence.

The report came as another Sri Lankan housemaid who had been working in Kuwait accused her employer of driving 14 wire nails into her body as punishment for failing in her work.

The woman, identified only as Lechchami, 38, underwent surgery to have the nails removed after returning home to Sri Lanka, the director of the hospital in the northwestern town of Kurunegala said on Saturday.

The doctor said the woman had told surgeons that her Kuwaiti employers drove the nails into her hands and left leg -- some as long as 3.5 centimetres (1.5 inches) -- when she asked for her salary after working for six months.

Police said the case was under investigation.

In August, another housemaid complained her Saudi employer drove 24 nails into her arms, legs and forehead as punishment. Most of them were removed by surgeons in Sri Lanka.

The Saudi government and private sector officials in Riyadh have questioned the credibility of the woman's allegations.

Some 1.8 million Sri Lankans are employed abroad, of whom 70 percent are women. Most work as housemaids in the Middle East while smaller numbers work in Singapore and Hong Kong, seeking higher salaries than they would get at home.

Non-governmental organisations report frequent cases of employer abuse of maids who work abroad.

http://www.france24.com/en/20101114-sri-lankan-maid-alleges-nail-torture-jordan

11 14 10 -In jordan - Sri Lankan forced to swallow nails ?

A SRI Lankan housemaid said her employer in Jordan forced her to swallow six nails, in the third case involving alleged torture in three months.

"We are awaiting a full report from doctors," said Kingsley Ranawaka, the head of the Foreign Employment Bureau of Sri Lanka, adding that authorities would decide on the next steps after looking at the medical evidence.

Identified as D.M. Chandima, the maid reported the alleged torture to the Sri Lankan diplomatic mission in Amman, the bureau said.

The report came as another Sri Lankan housemaid who worked in Kuwait accused her employer of driving 14 wire nails into her body as punishment for failing in her work.

The woman, identified only as Lechchami, 38, underwent surgery to have the nails removed after returning home to Sri Lanka, the director of the hospital in the northwestern town of Kurunegala said on Saturday.

The doctor said the woman told surgeons that her Kuwaiti employers drove the nails - some as long as 1.5 inches - into her hands and left leg when she asked for her salary after working for six months.

Police said the case was under investigation.

In August, another maid complained that her Saudi employer drove 24 nails into her arms, legs and forehead as punishment. Most of them were removed by surgeons in Sri Lanka.

The Saudi government and private sector officials in Riyadh questioned the credibility of the woman's allegations.

Some 1.8 million Sri Lankans are employed abroad, of whom 70 percent are women. Most work as housemaids in the Middle East, while smaller numbers work in Singapore and Hong Kong, seeking higher salaries than they would get at home.

Non-governmental organisations report frequent cases of employer abuse of maids who work abroad.

14 nails into her body

The video - English

Nov 14 ,2010 Another Sri Lankan maid alleges nail torture in Kuwait

Nov 14 ,2010 Another Sri Lankan maid alleges nail torture in Kuwait



A Sri Lankan housemaid has accused her Kuwaiti employer of hammering 14 nails into her body, in the second such incident in the past few months, a local doctor said Saturday.

The woman, identified only as Lechchami, 38, underwent surgery to have the nails removed after returning home to Sri Lanka, the director of the hospital in the northwestern town of Kurunegala said.

"We have removed nine out of the 14 wire nails that showed up in X-rays," hospital director Soma Rajamanthri told AFP.

The doctor said the woman had told surgeons that her Kuwaiti employers drove the nails into her hands and left leg - some as long as 3.5 centimetres (1.5 inches) - when she asked for her salary after working for six months.

"We can't verify her story, but she said the husband-and-wife couple who employed her did this to her," Rajamanthri said.

A police spokesman said the case was under investigation.

In August, another housemaid complained her Saudi employer drove 24 nails into her arms, legs and forehead as punishment. Most of them were removed by surgeons at Sri Lanka's Kamburupitiya hospital.

The Saudi government and private sector officials in Riyadh have questioned the credibility of the woman's allegations.

Some 1.8 million Sri Lankans are employed abroad, of whom 70 percent are women. Most work as housemaids in the Middle East while smaller numbers work in Singapore and Hong Kong, seeking higher salaries than they would get at home.

Non-governmental organisations report frequent cases of employer abuse of maids who work abroad.