Bahrain Tribune – 29 December 2003
The case of Indonesian housemaid Saripah Binti Robadi who was admitted to Intensive Care Unit at the BDF Hospital after suffering assault at the hands of her employers and attempting suicide has become a source of concern for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). According to BCHR Chairman Nabeel Rajab, when he visited the hospital yesterday morning, he was told that she had been discharged and sent back to her sponsor’s home where she is awaiting departure to Indonesia.
“This is extremely disturbing and highlights the flaws in the system for reporting abuse that the BCHR and its sub-committee the Migrant Workers’ Group (MWG) has raised,” Nabeel Rajab said, adding, “Firstly the BCHR and the Indonesian community volunteers have not been given enough access to this woman. Secondly, why are the employers and the police in such a hurry to close the case and send her home? What about justice to this woman? Shouldn’t there be an enquiry about how she ended up in the hospital, why she sought to end her life and what damages she will be paid for her suffering? Shouldn’t her employers be punished for this treatment of another human being?”
Bahrain Tribune – 29 December 2003
The case of Indonesian housemaid Saripah Binti Robadi who was admitted to Intensive Care Unit at the BDF Hospital after suffering assault at the hands of her employers and attempting suicide has become a source of concern for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). According to BCHR Chairman Nabeel Rajab, when he visited the hospital yesterday morning, he was told that she had been discharged and sent back to her sponsor’s home where she is awaiting departure to Indonesia.
“This is extremely disturbing and highlights the flaws in the system for reporting abuse that the BCHR and its sub-committee the Migrant Workers’ Group (MWG) has raised,” Nabeel Rajab said, adding, “Firstly the BCHR and the Indonesian community volunteers have not been given enough access to this woman. Secondly, why are the employers and the police in such a hurry to close the case and send her home? What about justice to this woman? Shouldn’t there be an enquiry about how she ended up in the hospital, why she sought to end her life and what damages she will be paid for her suffering? Shouldn’t her employers be punished for this treatment of another human being?”
Twenty-year-old Saripah Binti Robadi had suffered repeated assaults and violent beatings at the hands of her sponsor’s wife since she joined work in the household 15 months ago. The beatings escalated five months ago and before she tried to take her life, she had been badly beaten with a wooden stick in her legs, chest and head and even had an eye badly injured. In addition, the employer had pulled out her hair as well. She tried to end her life by stabbing herself with a kitchen knife in the stomach and was rushed to hospital last week.
“The suicide attempt was a cry for help from this poor woman,” Rajab told Tribune, adding, “It was only when she tried to take her life in desperation that her employers rushed her to hospital. When the BCHR and Migrant Workers Group (MWG) took charge of the case, I went to see her and was horrified to see that her head has been battered and she is so critically injured. Now we are concerned that she will be bundled off on the first plane regardless of whether she is medically fit to travel such a long distance and without proper escort to see that she reaches home safely.”
Saripah’s employer refused to comment when contacted by the Tribune and switched off his mobile when he recognised the identity of the caller. The Ministry of Interior also had no comment to make.
MWG Vice-Chairman Salma Bala added that the way the case was handled raised several concerns.
“This is why we are lobbying hard for proper police procedures to be put in place by the Ministry of Interior so that complaints of abuse 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 very people she is complaining about.”
The MWG is also 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 and above. Otherwise, the MWG volunteers say, housemaids are paid sub-human salaries of BD35 and 45 per month and that too for back-breaking work and long hours.
Salma also said the BCHR was seeking to open a register at the Salmaniya Medical Complex, health centres and other hospitals so that staff could record cases of abuse that were brought for treatment.
“We have no data to go by at present 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.” she said.