Abuse claim runaway woman jailed
By By MOHAMMED ASLAM
Published: 1st September 2006
A HOUSEMAID who accused her Bahraini sponsor of abusing her has been jailed for running away. She fled his house, in Qalali, Muharraq, and then reported him to the police three months later.
However, the 20-year-old Indonesian woman has been convicted of absconding from her place of work and not renewing her residence permit.
She was sentenced to 10 days in prison, followed by deportation by the Lower Criminal Court.
The woman was convicted despite claiming that her employer treated her like “an animal”, did not feed her properly and when he did he actually threw food at her.
Abuse claim runaway woman jailed
By By MOHAMMED ASLAM
Published: 1st September 2006
A HOUSEMAID who accused her Bahraini sponsor of abusing her has been jailed for running away. She fled his house, in Qalali, Muharraq, and then reported him to the police three months later.
However, the 20-year-old Indonesian woman has been convicted of absconding from her place of work and not renewing her residence permit.
She was sentenced to 10 days in prison, followed by deportation by the Lower Criminal Court.
The woman was convicted despite claiming that her employer treated her like “an animal”, did not feed her properly and when he did he actually threw food at her.
“I ran away from his house about three months ago,” she said in her statement to the police.
“My sponsor was always shouting at me and was not giving me food to eat.
“When he did give me some food he would throw it at me as if he was feeding an animal and provoked me.”
After running away, the woman said she earned money by accepting jobs as a free-visa worker in exchange for being paid and provided shelter.
“I started working as a free-visa worker at different places with different families,” she said.
“Every day I used to sleep in the houses of those families where I used to work.”
The woman reported her sponsor, who lives in Qalali, Muharraq, to the Manama Police Station.
She was then transferred to the Muharraq Police Station, which tried to contact her sponsor and ask him to collect her, according to documents submitted to the court.
Her sponsor had not reported her as a runaway housemaid to the Muharraq police.
However, he claimed that he had reported the matter to the Labour Ministry and the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence.
The court ruled against the woman and ordered that she should never be allowed to return to Bahrain upon being deported.
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