Middle East News
Bahrain human rights groups wants laws to protect domestic labour
By DPA
Jan 2, 2007, 11:33 GMT
Manama – The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) urged Gulf governments on Tuesday to introduce new laws to protect migrant domestic workers and allow them weekly holidays.
The Suffering in Silence report, which also called on labour unions and women’s groups to put on more pressure to introduce such laws, noted that the migrant domestic workers in the Gulf were among the most vulnerable segments of the society.
Often with very little formal education, domestic workers are in most need of protection by the state. But in the Gulf, domestic workers have been specifically excluded by labour laws and therefore any legal rights as workers, the report said.
Middle East News
Bahrain human rights groups wants laws to protect domestic labour
By DPA
Jan 2, 2007, 11:33 GMT
Manama – The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) urged Gulf governments on Tuesday to introduce new laws to protect migrant domestic workers and allow them weekly holidays.
The Suffering in Silence report, which also called on labour unions and women’s groups to put on more pressure to introduce such laws, noted that the migrant domestic workers in the Gulf were among the most vulnerable segments of the society.
Often with very little formal education, domestic workers are in most need of protection by the state. But in the Gulf, domestic workers have been specifically excluded by labour laws and therefore any legal rights as workers, the report said.
In effect, they work as the property of their employers with no mechanism to ensure they are provided a safe workplace and are not being abused.
BCHR said that the Gulf countries need to amend their labour lawsso that domestic workers are covered under its scope.
In its report it also called on the authorities and civil bodies to take immediate steps to require that employers give domestic workers at least one day off from work each week.
This is in line with Article 25 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the report said.
The center also expressed concern about the frequent abuse reports of domestic workers, who in their majority is made-up of women.
‘With the shocking and huge number of cases that we read in the daily newspapers, we do not see any local citizens brought to justice for committing such abusive acts’, said BCHR vice-president Nabeel Rajab.
‘The cases that make it to the media, however, are just a fraction of the actual cases of domestic worker abuse in the region. Most of the victims suffer in silence,’ he noted.
According to the BCHR, abused domestic workers frequently fall victim to clinical depression, and reports of workers who try to escape the suffering by attempting to commit suicide are very common.
It also said that the court systems have failed to provide protection to the abused domestic workers. Most abused domestic workers agree to go back home without seeking justice because they have no other choice, the report said.
Unemployed migrant workers would have no alternate means to support themselves during the duration of a trial, let alone pay for legal expenses. Furthermore, the lack of independence of the judiciary means that employers and sponsors can use their social status to influence court decisions in their favour.
The BCHR noted there was only one known case of domestic worker abuse in Bahrain in which the courts have convicted the employer.
In this case, the employer was an Indian national and the guilty verdict would have been very unlikely had she been a Bahraini national, the report said.
According to the 2006 State of World Population report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)in the 1990s, 84 per cent of all migrants from Sri Lanka to the Middle East were women, most of whom were domestic workers.
The UNFP report noted that Saudi Arabia hosts at least one million women who come from Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka – working in low-level occupations the great majority of them is domestic workers.
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