Bahrain Tribune – 21 December 2003
A Bahrain human rights delegation highlighted important issues facing “receiving countries” such as Bahrain to which women migrant workers go for work and called for closer co-operation between the receiving country and the country of origin.
In their presentation, Marwa Yousuf from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and Salma Bala, Vice-Chairperson of the Migrant Workers Group, (MWG), a sub-committee of the BCHR, called for a record of manpower agencies in both countries so that abuse and falsification of documents could be tracked and rectified.
Bahrain Tribune – 21 December 2003
A Bahrain human rights delegation highlighted important issues facing “receiving countries” such as Bahrain to which women migrant workers go for work and called for closer co-operation between the receiving country and the country of origin.
In their presentation, Marwa Yousuf from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and Salma Bala, Vice-Chairperson of the Migrant Workers Group, (MWG), a sub-committee of the BCHR, called for a record of manpower agencies in both countries so that abuse and falsification of documents could be tracked and rectified.
Salma was interviewed on Indonesian television where she mentioned the case of 14-year-old Fitri, the Indonesian who came to Bahrain to work and was rescued from abusive employers by the MWG.
“The news created consternation in Indonesia and I believe that the phone lines to the television station were jammed with callers asking the government to rescue the girl. The Indonesian Director-General of Manpower and Transmigration met us and explained that Indonesian authorities did impose an age limit of 25 years on women leaving to work as domestic workers abroad. However, he said manpower agencies recruited workers from remote villages and falsified documents, something that was difficult to track in every case.”
Salma and Marwa visited two big manpower agencies where maids were recruited for the Middle East and went through a month-long training programme, learning to do housework, use electrical appliances and even being trained in basic Arabic.
“The root cause of much of the abuse is the manpower agencies. They manipulate and coerce and create false documents and often the migrant workers are unaware of their rights and these manipulations since they are illiterate. The MWG is pressing for closer monitoring of domestic workers as they enter Bahrain. Cases like Fitri’s escape the official eye because when the maids arrive in groups, they are made to sit in one area and their passports are taken by the agent’s representative and stamped, without the immigration official seeing the women. Once the case came to light the immigration officials in Bahrain moved swiftly to cut the red-tape and arranged to let Fitri fly back with minimum fuss,” she said.
The MWG is lobbying in Bahrain to make it necessary for every householder who applies for a housemaid’s visa to have a monthly income of at least BD350. Otherwise, MWG volunteers say, housemaids are paid sub-human salaries of BD35 and BD45 a month and that too for back-breaking work and long hours. “We are also lobbying for proper police procedures to be put in place by the Ministry of Interior so that abuse complaints brought by housemaids are properly registered and investigated. At present, police usually refuse to take complaints and often they call the employer/sponsor and send the housemaid back to the people she is complaining about.”
She said that the BCHR was seeking to open a register at the Salmaniya Medical Complex and other hospitals so that staff could record cases of abuse brought for treatment. “We have no data to go by and such a register will help us to track cases of abuse, employers who consistently abuse employees despite the threat of blacklisting and ensure that the victims get a fair hearing.” Salma said that it was coincidental that in the weeks before the Jakarta workshop, Bahrain had seen cases reported of abuse against Indonesian maids. “Indonesian and Ethiopian maids are increasing in number in Bahrain and many come from villages that don’t even have electricity. Their employers in Bahrain expect them to operate 21st century gadgets and run the household for them despite the language and culture barrier. When this does not happen, there is frustration and the maids bear the brunt of the anger,” she said.