By EUNICE del ROSARIO
Published: 24th September 2006
EIGHT workers, including a housemaid who claimed to have been repeatedly raped by her employer, were taken in at the Philippine Embassy’s shelter, Zinj, yesterday – the first day of Ramadan. It takes the number of Filipinos seeking refuge at the shelter to 60.
The workers included four restaurant staff and housemaids, who claimed that their employers – whose nationalities included Bahrainis and an Egyptian – made them work up to 14 or even 18 hours a day.
Marilen Gempesaw, 35, told the GDN that her employer repeatedly raped her since he took her in, on August 12.
By EUNICE del ROSARIO
Published: 24th September 2006
EIGHT workers, including a housemaid who claimed to have been repeatedly raped by her employer, were taken in at the Philippine Embassy’s shelter, Zinj, yesterday – the first day of Ramadan. It takes the number of Filipinos seeking refuge at the shelter to 60.
The workers included four restaurant staff and housemaids, who claimed that their employers – whose nationalities included Bahrainis and an Egyptian – made them work up to 14 or even 18 hours a day.
Marilen Gempesaw, 35, told the GDN that her employer repeatedly raped her since he took her in, on August 12.
She said she feared for her life and decided to escape by jumping from her employer’s second-floor window as he and his 12-year-old son slept.
“At about 6am, I jumped from the second-floor window,” she said.
“It wasn’t that high, but I cut my right foot in the fall.”
She described how she walked from Muharraq to the embassy, not taking taxis because she was “too afraid”.
Ms Gempesaw first arrived in Bahrain in June this year to work for another Bahraini family.
She said she left her first employer after two months and returned to her agency because “work was too hard”.
The recruitment agency then found her a new family to work for, a father and son, who live in Muharraq.
Embassy officials said they would investigate the rape allegation carefully.
They added that the unusually high number of runaways recorded yesterday might not have anything to do with the holy month because it was only the first day of Ramadan.
The embassy had said that an average of about five maids run away each day during Ramadan, based on past records.
The embassy and other Asian embassies in Bahrain are on standby this Ramadan as they anticipate an influx of housemaids running away from abusive sponsors.
The Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) yesterday said that the number of workers they are currently providing shelter for has only gone up by one, when an Indian housemaid went to the Indian Club, Manama, last Thursday asking for help.
“This maid didn’t know the difference – she thought be it the Indian Club or Indian Embassy, someone was going to help her,” said society action committee head Marietta Dias.
“Someone from the club brought her to the embassy at 10pm and no one was there but the watchman.
“Unlike the Philippine Embassy, other embassies in Bahrain do not have their own shelters.
“So an Indian embassy employee had to pick up this maid from the embassy and bring her to the MWPS shelter at around 11pm.
“It is our job to take in anybody who needs help.”
There are about 10 maids, mainly from India and Indonesia, currently being provided shelter by the MWPS.
© Gulf Daily News
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/story.asp?Article=156606&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=29188