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Indonesian Maid Suffers Horrific Abuse in Saudi

On May 3, 2009

An Indonesian domestic has been hospitalised after months of torture by her employer in Riyadh, according to this report in the Arab News. The 20-year old woman, who was working in the house of a civil defence officer, was admitted to Riyadh Medical Complex Hospital Medical Complex three weeks ago with horrific injuries:

According to a medical report prepared by the hospital, the maid was semi-conscious and had sustained burns of varying degrees on her genitals and back. When she was brought to the hospital by the Red Crescent, according to the attorney, she had broken teeth and a bleeding mouth and black marks on her face and around her eyes. The Red Crescent was notified about the woman by members of the public who found her lying on the road.

The maid, who has not been named, is just one of a line of Indonesian women who have been abused in Saudi Arabia, according to an attorney:

This is the 16th case of abuse of housemaids registered at the Indonesian Embassy this year. Some of them were victims of rape and consequently illegitimate pregnancy

“The sponsor, who visited the embassy yesterday morning, denied all charges made by the maid against him and his wife. He said he did not know how she received physical injuries and they had never ill-treated her. The maid, on the contrary, insisted that the sponsor and his wife struck her and they had not paid her salary for the 19 months and 14 days she worked for them,”

While 16 cases of mistreatment of Indonesian nationals have been reported in Saudi Arabia, who knows how many more have been abused, underpaid or even killed behind closed doors?