Maid ‘swaps sex for salary’
By EUNICE del ROSARIO
Published: 10th October 2006
AN elderly Egyptian man is being investigated for alleged exploitation after his Filipina maid yesterday claimed she had sex with him in exchange for her salary and phone calls to her family in the Philippines.
A second interview is scheduled to take place today between police officers and 38-year-old maid Irenea Sanchez as part of the investigation.
The man, who is believed to be in his 60s and suffering from diabetes, has denied all allegations during meetings with police and Philippine Embassy officials.
Maid ‘swaps sex for salary’
By EUNICE del ROSARIO
Published: 10th October 2006
AN elderly Egyptian man is being investigated for alleged exploitation after his Filipina maid yesterday claimed she had sex with him in exchange for her salary and phone calls to her family in the Philippines.
A second interview is scheduled to take place today between police officers and 38-year-old maid Irenea Sanchez as part of the investigation.
The man, who is believed to be in his 60s and suffering from diabetes, has denied all allegations during meetings with police and Philippine Embassy officials.
Sources told the GDN that he claimed it would have been “impossible to have forced sex” with anyone as he was weak because of his diabetes.
But according to the maid, she was subjected to continuous sexual abuse within just one week of arriving in Bahrain last New Year’s Eve.
Mrs Sanchez, a native of Novaliches, said that her employer’s wife and 26-year-old son were unaware of the “sexual encounters” between them.
“It started on January 5, I remember it – he had forced me to have sex with him because he said if I did he would be happy and I would be happy, too,” she told the GDN.
“He told me if I made him happy, I would be able to call my family in the Philippines and if I didn’t make him happy, I wouldn’t be paid my monthly salary.
“So I found myself having sex with him and yes, sometimes it was consensual, because I kept thinking I need to send money to my children and speak to my family.”
She said that after every “encounter”, her employer would offer her free phone calls to her husband and three children, aged 14 to 18, in Novaliches and pay her monthly BD50 salary.
She said that she ran away after her employer pushed her on to the bed hard enough to leave bruises on her arms.
“That was the time I decided I didn’t want to do this any longer.”
An embassy spokesman confirmed that Mrs Sanchez arrived at the shelter in Zinj, on Saturday saying that she had been raped.
Following an interview with embassy officials, she then admitted that she had sometimes had consensual sex with her employer.
“Whether or not they had consensual sex, it remains a fact that not anywhere in a housemaid’s contract is it stated that employers are allowed to have sexual relations with their workers,” said the spokesman.
“Any kind of sexual relations between an employer and a maid is not right.
“Employers must respect their workers and should know what not to do when it comes to treating their maids.”
Police have reportedly told embassy officials and Mrs Sanchez that she risks being sent to jail and deported if they prove her statement is false.
“I stand by my statement,” she said.
“I just hope my family in the Philippines will not know about it.
“It would tear them apart.”
© Gulf Daily News
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/story.asp?Article=158314&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=29204
