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Worker 'tricked into going to Iraq'

On April 16, 2008

From the BBC -

Darmianti binti Jaba Saleh only realised where she was when she pulled out the pile of money she had been given.

Written across the top of the notes were the words "Bank of Iraq".

Darmianti was having her medical check-up prior to being placed as a domestic worker in the Kurdish north of Iraq.

The only problem was that she had not been told she was going to Iraq at all.

When she left her home in Indonesia, the agent sending her had told she was headed for Kurdistan - a safe place, he told her, on the border with Iraq.

Somewhere she could find a good job and make good money, much better than the money she had made a few years ago in Jordan.

But instead, Darmianti was flown to the Middle East, put in a taxi and driven five hours down to Arbil in northern Iraq.

'Very afraid'

When she found out where she was, she said, she felt completely deceived.

"I wanted to go home that day," she said. "I was very afraid, especially when we heard the booming sounds outside. We'd all be crying in our rooms."

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