Gulf Daily News : Maids' abuse to be probed

Maids’ abuse to be probed
By GEOFFREY BEW
Published: 20th July 2007
LABOUR Ministry officials have pledged to investigate claims that one of Bahrain’s leading manpower agencies regularly beats housemaids.
The Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) last month lodged a complaint with the ministry and demanded an urgent investigation into the allegations.
Officials also called for the organisation to be closed if the claims were found to be true.
It came after the GDN reported that volunteers had rescued Sri Lankan housemaid Nirupa Ranasinghe, 40, from the street.
She was picked up near the Sacred Heart Church, Manama, after running away from her sponsor and is now staying at the organisation’s shelter for domestic workers.
Maids’ abuse to be probed
By GEOFFREY BEW
Published: 20th July 2007
LABOUR Ministry officials have pledged to investigate claims that one of Bahrain’s leading manpower agencies regularly beats housemaids.
The Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) last month lodged a complaint with the ministry and demanded an urgent investigation into the allegations.
Officials also called for the organisation to be closed if the claims were found to be true.
It came after the GDN reported that volunteers had rescued Sri Lankan housemaid Nirupa Ranasinghe, 40, from the street.
She was picked up near the Sacred Heart Church, Manama, after running away from her sponsor and is now staying at the organisation’s shelter for domestic workers.
Ms Ranasinghe did not suffer any abuse herself, but claims she witnessed assaults when she stayed in the agency’s accommodation in Manama for three months, while recovering from a broken ankle.
She claimed that more than 20 maids, who had run away from their sponsors and been sent back to the agency, were attacked by an expatriate woman and a Bahraini man running the organisation, before being handed back to their employers.
However, the owner of the agency strongly denied the allegations and pledged to fully co-operate with any government probe.
MWPS acting action committee head Delrine Embuldeniya yesterday revealed Labour Ministry officials had promised to investigate the abuse allegations.
“They said they will follow up the case,” she told the GDN.
Ms Embuldeniya said that following the ministry’s intervention, Ms Ranasinghe had also been paid one month’s salary that had been outstanding.
The news came as it emerged the maid would return home to Sri Lanka on Wednesday
Sponsors
The MWPS had attempted to find her work with two separate sponsors, but she was unable to fulfil her commitments because of mobility problems with her ankle.
It has paid for her ticket home and, with the help of an anonymous donor, given her travel expenses amounting to BD50.
Ms Ranasinghe, from Kandy in central Sri Lanka, has three sons, aged 11 to 21, and is separated from her husband.
Meanwhile, another Sri Lankan housemaid who ran away from her sponsor’s family three times after alleging abuse, flew home last night.
Widow Mallika Geeganagegamage, 40, who came to Bahrain in September last year, also managed to obtain her BD50 monthly salary of seven months that had been outstanding following the intervention of Labour Ministry officials.
The mother-of-two was forced to pay BD108 for her ticket home, but will also leave with BD50 for travel expenses thanks to the MWPS and the help of an anonymous donor.
geoff@gdn.com.bh
© Gulf Daily News