Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

Box 3.6. Rape of a domestic worker
“I came to Kuwait on a domestic worker’s visa. I paid my sponsor and he
allowed me to work in a mobile shop. One day, his car pulled up in front
of the store. He came inside and told me he needed to see me. I followed
him and he raped me in the car. I went to the doctors and filed a complaint
at the police, and then returned to work the next day. He reported to the
authorities that I had run away, and the police arrested me. My employer
tells me that if I drop the rape charges, he will make sure that I am not
deported.”
Interview with Filipina domestic worker in detention centre, Kuwait.
Psychological, physical and sexual violence committed against migrant
domestic workers has also been documented in countries of origin. The
harrowing experience of a Sri Lankan domestic worker in Jordan was recorded
upon her return home. The 38-year-old woman had been in Amman since
February 2012, and was “severely tortured and assaulted with dangerous
objects by the recruitment agency”. 84 In July 2012 her employer took her to
the airport, where she boarded a plane back to Sri Lanka. Upon arrival in her
country, she was immediately admitted to Batticaloa General Hospital, where
she received treatment for 20 days before being discharged. To this day, the
woman’s family worries about her mental health and well-being, as she seems
unable to recover from her trauma.
In the Philippines, returned migrant workers have also filed court cases
against abusive employers and recruitment agencies. One of the cases
shared with the research team involved a woman who had travelled to
Jordan in July 2002 to become a domestic worker. The day after her
arrival in Amman, her employer pushed her from the second story of their
home after a quarrel over the use of a mobile phone. The woman survived
the fall but suffered from serious injuries, rendering her permanently
quadriplegic and requiring mechanical ventilation. After spending a year
in hospital in Jordan she was repatriated; she died two weeks later. The
labour arbiter at the National Labour Relations Commission of Quezon
City found her parents entitled to their deceased daughter’s salary, as well as
indemnities for the loss of earnings, moral damages and exemplary damages
from the employer in Jordan. 85
84
Information collected from an official from the Center for Human Rights and
Development after carrying out a field visit to Batticaloa (Eastern Province), Sri Lanka,
on 4 Sep. 2012.
85
Case No. (L) 03-06-1373-00 of the National Labour Relations Commission,
Banawe, Quezon City, Philippines, 30 Sep. 2003.
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