http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp
‘Give me my salary first’
Riffa employers to send Indian maid home and pay 22 months’ dues at airport, but she does not trust them
Meera Ravi
Staff Correspondent
One more case of exploitation of housemaid has come to light.
A young Indian housemaid Sangita S.G. has sought the help of the Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) to break the impasse with her employers over the non-payment of her salary.
According to the case notes, Sangita has been working with a Bahraini family in Riffa for four years and claims that she is owed 22 months’ salary. She was sporadically paid her salary of BD40 for over 16 hours of work daily and given food around mid-day only.
http://www.bahraintribune.com/ArticleDetail.asp
‘Give me my salary first’
Riffa employers to send Indian maid home and pay 22 months’ dues at airport, but she does not trust them
Meera Ravi
Staff Correspondent
One more case of exploitation of housemaid has come to light.
A young Indian housemaid Sangita S.G. has sought the help of the Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) to break the impasse with her employers over the non-payment of her salary.
According to the case notes, Sangita has been working with a Bahraini family in Riffa for four years and claims that she is owed 22 months’ salary. She was sporadically paid her salary of BD40 for over 16 hours of work daily and given food around mid-day only.
For Sangita, the last straw came when her employer told her she would be sent home this week and that all her arrears would be cleared only at the airport.
“I could not trust them – they have not paid me for so long that there is no guarantee that they would keep their promise. And once I leave Bahrain, I had no way of fighting for my money,” she said, “So I ran away to the Indian embassy to seek help.”
“I want to go home and see my parents and family – but I want my hard-earned money and the couple of gold ornaments that I bought from the money they sometimes gave me. I left it all behind in the house. If I don’t get even this, how will I justify four years of my difficult life?” Sangita asked.
When the MWPS contacted the agent who brought Sangita to Bahrain, another shock awaited the volunteers. For four years, the employer has not bothered to regularise the maid’s papers and has not even sent her for the mandatory medical check.
The MWPS has registered a case with the Ministry of Labour on her behalf.
“It is a telling comment on the perception of these workers that Sangita says she was not really ‘abused’ in that she was not beaten,” a spokeswoman for the MWPS, Delrene Embuldeniya, told the Tribune. “But to make a person work such long hours without a week-end holiday, pay her only occasionally and give her food only once a day seems grounds to accuse the family of abuse.”
Delrene said, “A long campaign to sensitise the public about human rights issues such as the abuse of housemaids is faltering because of a lack of support from the Arabic media in Bahrain. Reports of abuse of maids only make it to the English and Malayalam papers in eight out of 10 cases.”
Last update on: 16-8-2006
Article from: Bahrain Tribune Newspaper- www.BahrainTribune.com