Many domestic servants from developing countries are mistreated and abused
by their employers, Human Rights Watch reports, with children often forced into
servitude. Cases cited by HRW include two Indonesian children working as maids
who were beaten to death and a 13-year-old servant who was repeatedly raped by
her Indonesian employer.
Two cases in Asia in recent years have brought the plight of domestic
servants into the public consciousness. A Singaporean employer, Ng Hua Chye, was
sentenced to 18 years in prison after he beat his 19-year-old Indonesian maid,
Muawanatul Chasanah, so severely that her stomach ruptured and she
died.
In Malaysia there was a public outcry after newspapers carried graphic
pictures of 19-year-old Nirmala Bonat. Her employer, Yim Pek Ha, had allegedly
poured boiling water on her, beat her and pressed a hot iron on her breasts and
back. The case is still in the courts.
But HRW found that, far from being isolated cases, the attacks were typical
of the treatment many maids experienced - but many cases never make it to
court.
The report details the case of Putri, a 15-year-old maid in Indonesia. When
she failed to remove dirt trapped between the bathroom tiles, "her employer
poured a cleanser containing hydrochloric acid on her right hand and arm,
resulting in discolouration of the skin, burns and permanent scarring," the
report says.
Abena R, a 10-year-old from Ghana, told HRW: "My boss yelled at me and beat
me with a stick, she broke my hand. She didn't take me to the hospital." The NGO
providing shelter to Abena said her hand was paralysed and might never
heal.
Dian, a 13-year-old working as a maid in Indonesia, was repeatedly raped by
her male employer. "It was 4 am and I was sleeping," she told the investigators.
"He came into the room. I was forced to have sex with him. He threatened me. He
said he would hit me if I told anyone. He told me that he would throw me out and
my mother would get no money. It happened for three years. I was scared, but I
wanted to support my mother."
Assoupi H, from Togo, was forced to work as a servant when she was three
years old. She said: "[My employer] told my mother she would put me in school,
but she gave birth to twins and said I had to help her look after the children
until they were old enough for school. I was only three years old, but I carried
her babies and held them for her."
For thousands of women from poor countries, leaving to work as servants in
a wealthier country is the only way they can support their families. There are
approximately 300,000 migrant domestic workers in Malaysia, and 150,000 in
Singapore, the vast majority of them women. Often their employers take away
their passports to prevent them leaving.
Thousands more work as servants in their own countries. A shockingly high
percentage are children. In El Salvador, 20,000 women and girls between the ages
of 14 and 19 work as maids, and in Indonesia the International Labour
Organisation estimates there are as many as 700,000 domestic servants under the
age of 18.
They often work under atrocious conditions. The HRW report found several
cases of women being forced to work 17 hours a day and being denied a day off
for months on end. Many were never allowed to leave their employer's houses, and
some were only allowed only bread to eat.
The report found that in most countries domestic servants were denied the
basic legal protection given to other workers and local law did not entitle them
to a minimum wage, maximum working hours or days off.
Even in the United States, where they are entitled to a minimum wage, HRW
found many migrants who were working as domestic servants were being paid less
than half what they were entitled to by law.
Abuse around the world
* The International Labour Organisation estimates more girls under 16 work
in domestic service than other child labour.
* Half the estimated 200 million migrants are women. In the Philippines,
Indonesia and Sri Lanka it is closer to 75 per cent.
* About 300,000 migrant domestic workers are in Malaysia, 150,000 in
Singapore and 700,000 child workers are in Indonesia.
* The Sri Lankan embassy in Saudia Arabia receives up to 150 maids a month
fleeing domestic abuse.
* In the past six years, at least 147 domestic workers have died in
Singapore.
* Malaysian maids frequently work for less than 25 cents an hour.
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