By BARBARA SURK for the Associated Press.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Foreign housemaids in the oil-rich Gulf sometimes work 21-hour days without medical care, enough food, or the right to go home, and they also face violence and harassment, a human rights report said Wednesday.
Dubai’s government, shaken by a rash of recent labor protests, [...]
Arab Times Reports:
Maid Attempts suicide
A 24 year old Indian Maid who tried in vain to end her life by cutting her wrist inside the bathroom of her sponsors home in Bneid Al Gar has been admitted to the Amiri Hospital, reports Alam Al Yawm daily.
A case of attempted suicide has been registered against the woman. [...]
Recently I have noticed that the suicide cases among workers and maids have been on the rise in Kuwait. There is at least one suicide case reported everyday, with a small coverage as though, it’s a one-off incident. Today, I came across 4 such reports in the Kuwait and Arab Times which I uploaded below. [...]
Zeina Karam recently reports the following incident from Beirut:
BEFORE she escaped, Chandra worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week, cooking, cleaning and running a household for a family of six in Lebanon. The only time the Sri Lankan maid was allowed to leave the home was to throw out the rubbish. If she [...]
BBC reports:
Gulf states are failing to curb serious abuses of Sri Lankan migrant workers employed as maids in their countries, a Human Rights Watch report has said.
The US-based group says abuse of maids is rampant in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Lebanon.
Employers routinely confiscate domestic workers’ passports and confine them to the [...]
The Financial Times reports:
The governments of the Gulf are failing to curb the abuse of domestic workers, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
The pressure group called on states such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to widen existing labour regulations to cover maids, most of whom come from India, Sri Lanka and [...]
Kuwait times - Wednesday November 7, 2007
The family of an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) sentenced to death by a Kuwaiti Court is calling on President Macapagal Arroyo for more help. Rosario Ranario, father of Marilou Ranario said more government help was needed not that the Kuwaiti Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on November [...]
From Arab News:
RIYADH, 18 September 2007 — The wheels of justice would move too slow for a Sri Lankan woman who was rescued by Riyadh police after working for years in slave-like conditions: She now says she can’t wait around in the Kingdom for the legal process of suing her sponsor, and just wants to [...]
From a report this morning on Gulf News:
Riyadh: An Indonesian housemaid is in serious condition following amputation of both her hands and feet after a month-long torture by her employers, said a member of the Saudi National Society for Human Rights.
Dr Nora Al Jumaih, member of the monitoring and follow-up committee at the Saudi National [...]
“I still cannot believe that I am out of this ordeal that I have undergone for the past 10 years,” said Anista Marie, 40, who since 1999 hasn’t received her salary. Marie called up Arab News a little over 3 weeks ago saying she has been imprisoned and abused in the home of her sponsor [...]