The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (13)

Daring Escape (3)

Al-Jazirah newspaper reported, on May 18, police arrested and questioned three Indonesians, following the discovery of a body of an Indonesian maid near a wedding hall in Al-Naseem district a week earlier.

The woman had called the police before her death.
They traced the call made by the Indonesian maid in her 30s.

She was trying to escape from her sponsor by climbing down through the window of a third floor apartment.
The woman fell and suffered serious head injuries.

Three Indonesian men then took her home where she died.
The men panicked, and they then dumped her body near the wedding hall.

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(Okaz photo)
Another Indonesian housemaid had her life shortened in the first Thursday on December 2010.
She met death from a fall through the window of a third-floor apartment in Jeddah’s Al-Safa District.

Owner of the apartment told Okaz/ Saudi Gazette the housemaid had escaped from her original sponsor in Hail.
The maid absconded from her employer in the northwestern town of Hail.
She then worked for the owner of the apartment in Jeddah.

She tried to escape when she learned that her former employer had traced her whereabout.
He was on his way to fetch her home.
The maid’s sponsor had earlier contacted the owner of the apartment in Hail, asking him to hold to her while waiting for his arrival.

But the maid upon learning her original sponsor would come and get her, she tried escaping from him using a rope made from knotted clothes.
She fell to the ground and instantly died.

The operations room of a police station in Northern Jeddah received a report about the incident.
Police found the woman’s body lying in a pool of blood.
The body was then transferred to the Forensic Medicine Administration to determine other injuries other than those caused by the fall.

An official letter will then be sent to her country’s consulate in preparation for her burial.

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A 29-year-old Indonesian maid was only into her third month with her sponsor before she decided to jump from the employer's third floor home in the Al-Kakiya district of Makkah last December 23.

She was trying to escape to work illegally elsewhere but ended up in intensive care unit suffering from fractured bones and internal bleeding.

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A driver offered a man of recruiting a new maid through illegal channel after his helper disappeared several week earlier.

But the man began to suspect the driver's activities.
The driver was under his observation.
To his surprise, he saw his former maid enter the drivers premises opposite his own home.

Okaz/SG reported the driver confessed to police that he had tempted the man's housemaid away from her employer.
She was promised better and more lucrative work.

The driver was then under detention for helping her to flee and for giving her shelter.
The woman was arrested in the last week of August.

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Maid Leads Police To Liquor Den 
By MD RASOOLDEEN 

RIYADH: The arrest of a runaway housemaid led Riyadh police on Monday to a gang of criminals who were distilling liquor in Riyadh’s Sultana district.

The woman was stopped by police and questioned about her legal status.
They learned that she was a runaway maid who fled her sponsor five months ago.
According to police, the maid then fell prey to a group of men who had offered her a job with benefits, including an annual home-visit plane ticket.
But instead of employing her as a maid, the gang sexually exploited the woman.
“I had no choice except to give in for their pleasure since they threatened to take me to the police if I disagreed,” the maid is alleged to have told the police.
The maid led police to the location where they found six barrels of liquor, three small gas cylinders and three single burner cooker — all equipment used to distill fermented liquid into spirits.
The woman and an unreported number of men involved in the gang were detained.

Source: Arab News - April 29, 2010

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Christine, a 26-year-old woman from Kenya.arrived in Saudi Arabia in 2009 at Jeddah’s international airport.

She obtained her work visa at the Saudi embassy in Nairobi, where she was promised a job as a children’s English teacher.

She arrived with seven other women, all in the same situation as she was.
Her "sponsor" came to pick her up at the airport.
He was accompanied by his wife and mother-in-law.
They told her that, for the time being, she would be teaching English to their own children.
But she quickly realised that she had been tricked.
Instead of taking her to their home, she went to the home of friends of theirs, where several Kenyans were already working as maids.
There, they removed her passport and cell phone (all her contact numbers in it), saying they would be returned the day she return home.
Then she was sent to work in the sponsor's mother-in-law’s home.
There, she met another Kenyan woman who had been working as a maid for two months.
She warned Christine of what lay ahead.
One month later, she was sent back to her main employer’s home.
There began a truly horrible period that lasted around four months.
She slept in a tiny, cramped room with a thin, hard mattress on the floor.
She had to ask for permission to eat.
She worked like crazy, doing all of the housework, from ten in the morning to five or six the next morning non-stop.
She wasn’t allowed to call home for two months.
When she finally did, she learned that her father was very ill and had been hospitalised.
She asked her employer – to whom she was not supposed to be allowed to talk to – if he could pay her salary so that she could return home to see her father.
She hadn’t been paid anything so far – her monthly salary was supposed to be of SR800.
But the employer and his wife refused, going so far as to tell her that, even if her father did pass away, it wouldn’t be too serious!
That’s when she understood that her only chance would be to run away.
Once out of the house, she took a taxi that brought her to the Guinean consulate.
She had a lot of trouble getting officials there to understand what was going, given that she only speak English. She finally ended up waiting for two months in the consulate’s courtyard.
Finally, she met Mohamed, 27, born in Africa but lives in Saudi Arabia...

Continue reading ....:

http://habarizanyumbani.jambonewspot.com/2010/09/08/runaway-kenyan-maid-describes-saudi-ordeal-i-worked-day-and-night-and-was-never-paid/ 

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (12)

Daring Escape (2)

Runaway Filipino Maid Claims She Was Raped  
By RODOLFO ESTIMO JR. 

RIYADH: A Filipino runaway staying in a villa some 250 km north of Riyadh has sought the assistance of the Philippine Embassy to get home, according to Vice Consul Roussel R. Reyes, Philippine Embassy officer–in-charge.
“The maid told us that she wanted to be with her two kids in the Philippines because she missed them,” he told Arab News on Wednesday.
He said that as soon as the staff of the embassy's Assistance to Nationals Section locate the villa where the maid and six other runaway maids are staying a team would be dispatched to ensure she is rescued.
The case of the maid, whose name is not being published to protect her privacy, was referred to the embassy after Arab News learned on Tuesday night that she wanted to go home.
Arab News contacted the maid after being notified of her situation by a community leader in Dammam.
The woman came to the Kingdom as a caregiver, but ended up as a maid earning SR800 a month.
Twelve days into this job, the sponsor returned her to the placement agency.
“My employer saw that working as maid, my nose was bleeding,” she said.
The agency was able to look for a job for her but worked for only 24 days because she claims her employer raped her.
“That was on Sept. 21, and on the same day I escaped and reported (the incident) to the agency, which did nothing when I complained that I was raped.
Eventually the agency got another job for me,” she said.
The six other maids do not want to be taken by the embassy because they are employed and do not want to return home.
“This is a simple case of human trafficking,” said a case officer at the Philippine Embassy.
“The six others do not want to go home because they are working.
Someone fetches them from their villa in the morning and brings them back in the evening.”
The officer said he suspected the person in charge of the maids has told the six maids who do not want to return home that if the embassy comes to rescue the maid they might also be taken in.
“This is something the six others don't like because they are working to earn,” he said.
“They don't want to go home yet.
That's also the reason why they asked Leonora (the pseudonym for the maid who wants to be rescued) to leave their accommodation.”
The officer pointed out that there are labor recruiting agencies that are accredited by the Saudi government but not by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO).
Only POLO-accredited agencies can be directly ordered to assist maids in their care.
“The embassy does not have any control over agencies (not accredited by POLO),” said the officer.

Source: Arab News - January 13, 2011

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Philippines Embassy narrowed its search for distress Leonora.

A text message was sent to them indicating the location of the villa, about two kilometers from Majmaa in Riyadh, about 250 km from Riyadh. 

The Pakistani men who looked after them did not allow her to venture out alone. 

Leonora was also scared to leave the villa and walk toward the city because she did not have an iqama or passport.

She claimed that she was asked by the six other runaway maids to leave the villa.

They were afraid that the embassy would also take them if and when the embassy rescues Leonora.

They did not want to go back to Philippines yet as they still want to continue working to earn.

****** ****** ******  

Another Run-Away Maid Seeks Embassy Help

RIYADH: A second maid of seven being housed illegally by a Pakistani man to be outsourced in the black labor market near Majmaa, Riyadh province, says she would like to return home.
“We are trying to locate the exact location of the villa where Ofie (not her real name), Leonora (not her real name) and five other maids are staying,” Philippine Embassy Charge dAffaires Ezzedin H. Tago told Arab News on Thursday.
The exact location of the villa where the women are illegally residing is unknown.
The house is believed to be located within two kilometers from Majmaa.
Leonora, who claims she was raped by her sponsor and later fled after he placement agency didnt respond to her complaint, has been trying to seek help from the Philippine Embassy to return home.
Meanwhile, the other six women residing at the villa have been urging Leonora to leave because they dont want to be discovered and deported.
Now one of those six women has reportedly come out saying she would also like to be repatriated.
Tago said that if and when the exact location of the villa can be ascertained, the embassy would rescue Ofie and Leonora in coordination with the local police.
The women do not have a clear idea of their precise location.
Talking to Arab News by phone Ofie said that she was working as a house cook and escaped from employer on Aug. 10.
“Before I went on vacation last year, my employer, a doctor working at the Security Forces Hospital, promised to increase my monthly salary from SR1,000 to SR1,200,” she said.
“But when I came back, his wife, who is a teacher, was giving me the same salary of SR1,000 she told me not to tell her husband about it.”
She added that the situation became worse when her employer hired another domestic worker, an Eritrean, with a salary of SR1,500.
“The Eritrean started giving orders to me and when I did not follow her she complained to the employers wife, saying that I did not want to work,” Ofie said.
Ofie said that she was being asked to work outside the kitchen.
“I told her that I had been hired mainly to cook food and do nothing else.
Besides, I wake up at 5 a.m. and she at 11 a.m.
She should have been be doing the things was asking me to do,” she said.
The circumstances took a turn for the worse when the Eritrean complained about Ofies work, angering the wife.
Ofie said she then contacted a Filipino beautician (who has since returned to the Philippines) and they agreed to leave their employers.
“Through another contact, we were able to reach the villa where were staying now.
Its also here where I met Leonora and the other maids who dont want to go home yet because they still want to work,” she said.
She said that she did not have money but if the embassy could bear the costs of her repatriation, shed like to go back to the Philippines to rejoin her family in Ifugao province north of Manila.
Ofie and her husband have three children.
The women work illegally and are being managed by a Pakistani man who could face jail time for housing and contracting workers who have fled their sponsors and now have illegal status in the Kingdom.

Source: A1 Saudi Arabia - January 21, 2011

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In the mean time, Leonora ventured out with an Indian woman and a Pakistani driver named Arshad.

They left the villa in Majmaa. 

Arshad was supposed to drop her at Diriyah, at a supermarket along Exit 10 in Riyadh. 

From there, she would call the embassy requesting someone to pick and brought her to Bahay Kalinga, BK, a temporary shelter for runaway maids run by members of the Filipino community. 

But the last call she made to the embassy  was to inform of being taken to the police station.

Embassy officials would seek the help of local authorities in Riyadh and Majmaa to find the Indian woman and Arshad, who might be involved in human trafficking.

******

Case Officer To Visit Filipino Maids In Prison

RIYADH: A Philippine Embassy case officer will visit a womens prison in Riyadhs Malaz district on Wednesday to talk to two Filipino maids arrested on suspicion of being runaways.
He will hope to speak to Leonora and Ofie (not their real names) regarding the circumstances surrounding their arrest by the police.
“The embassy has requested for a permit to visit Nisa prison in Malaz district so that I can talk to the two runaway maids whom the police arrested,” the officer handling the two maids case told Arab News on Monday.
The case officer made the statement after police called the embassy to say that they could not get any information from Leonora and Ofie regarding their case.
They had run away from their sponsors in Riyadh to Majmaa, but then decided to return to the capital.
The following day, the two maids were arrested by the police in a villa in Diriya with three Indian nationals.
“The police said that after giving few personal details such as their names, Leonora and Ofie clammed up when asked about their sponsors.
Its probable that they are trying not to unnecessarily incriminate others who might be involved in their case,” the case officer said. Leonora had given her name as Kristine Ali Noor.
“Much has been known about Leonora, whose case had also been reported by other newspapers catering for overseas Filipinos, but not Ofie.
Unlike Leonora, we dont even know her real name, which part of the country she comes from, if she has a family or not, and details of the Philippine agency that processed her papers for deployment to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
One newspaper published from Bahrain carried a story on Leonora, giving her name as Leonor.
Earlier, Leonora told Arab News that she arrived in the Kingdom in the middle of 2010 to work as a caregiver, but ended up working as a maid.
When she complained, her employers wife took her to the local agency that deployed her.
The agency placed her with another employer who allegedly raped her.
“Because of the incident, I escaped and went to the agency, which did nothing regarding my complaint,” she said.
The agency eventually looked for another employer, but as things were getting worse for Leonora, she escaped.
She and Ofie were helped by a Filipino woman to go to Majma.
Their helper has since gone back to the Philippines.

Source: A1 Saudi Arabia - February 15, 2011

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Stranded Filipino Maids To Be Repatriated  
By RODOLFO ESTIMO JR. 

RIYADH: The Philippine Embassy announced on Monday that two Filipino housemaids caught with three Indian nationals in a villa in Diriyah in February would soon be repatriated to the Philippines.

Leonora and Ofie (not their real names) are still being held at a women’s jail in the Malaz district in Riyadh.
“Leonora’s documents are now being prepared.
Then it will be sent to the governor’s office for approval.
After that, a plane ticket will be issued,” an embassy official told Arab News on Monday.
He added that Ofie’s travel documents had been processed earlier and a plane ticket would also be issued to her.
“A plane ticket is normally issued by the Saudi government.
Otherwise, the embassy will provide it,” he added.
He also said that Leonora, who was imprisoned in February, had been sentenced to four months in prison and 70 lashes.
Her prison term ends next week.
He added that Ofie’s travel documents had been issued earlier because she did not receive a custodial sentence.
“Maybe it was because she was able to convince police authorities that she was merely a victim and not doing anything wrong,” the official said, adding that Leonora was unhappy that she had been jailed instead.
In February, Arab News reported that Leonora and Ofie went missing after leaving their villa in Majma, some 250 km north of Riyadh.
They were already in Diriyah when Leonora allegedly called the embassy to say that they had been arrested by the police.
“It was not true that the police stopped them,” the embassy official said.
“The truth is, it was only Leonora who was dropped by a Pakistani driver in Diriyah.
Ofie, who was romantically linked with one of the three Indians, had earlier left Majma for Diriyah in Riyadh,” he said.
He added that it was obvious Leonora had asked the driver to drop her in Diriyah as per an earlier arrangement with Ofie.
The embassy official added that early one morning police caught them with the three Indians.
Ofie was reportedly drunk and shouting.
“The neighbors probably called and complained to the police.
The police responded and found out that Leonora, who gave her Muslim name as Kristine Ali Noor, and Ofie were with the three Indians,” he said.
Leonora had earlier told Arab News that she asked the driver to drop her in front of a supermarket.
The driver was also reportedly having an affair with one of five other Filipino runaway maids in Majma.
From the supermarket, she was supposed to call the embassy and ask officials to pick her up and take her to the Bahay Kalinga (BK), a government shelter where stranded Filipino women stay while awaiting repatriation to the Philippines.
Leonora, who had been separated from her husband before she left the Philippines for Saudi Arabia, comes from Baguio City north of Manila.
She has three kids who are being looked after by her mother.
Before coming to Saudi Arabia, she had worked in a gasoline station and a restaurant in Baguio City. Ofie, on the other hand, is from Ifugao.

Source: Arab News - May 3, 2011

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (11)

Daring Escape

A newly arrived Asian housemaid, in her 20s, had a fall three days ago, from the third floor of a residential building in Alkhobar, eastern town of Damman, Saudi Arabia.

She made the run away attempt from the seventh floor apartment through a kitchen window.
She then clung to pipes stuck to the building and started to slide down.
Upon reaching the third floor, the pipes collapsed due to her weight and she hit the ground, where she met the fatal fall.
Arab News reported she was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries but later died at the hospital.

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Another death fall befell on a housemaid in her 40s, in an attempt to flee her sponsor's house in Makkah.

She was trying to escape through sanitary pipes along with her personal belongings.
Okaz / Saudi Gazzette reported the “homesick” housemaid arrived in the Kingdom two months ago in March, only to find death the next month, in the second week of April.

The housemaid suffered multiple fractures of her arms and legs.
She suffered from brain hemorrhage too, which caused her death.

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Early this year, January 12, Arabic language daily Almadina reported yet another Indonesian housemaid's death.

The female migrant worker sneaked through the bathroom’s window in an attempt to flee her employer.
She went up to the roof of the the fourth floor building in the central town of Makkah.
Once there, she found a rope, dangled it down to reach the ground.
She then tried to climb down using the rope, but lost her balance and plunged down.

The maid laid on the ground for nearly 15 minutes before she died.

She was found by residents who were leaving a mosque after prayers.

****** 

Photo: ist

PT Aji Ayahbunda Sejati (AAS), flew then 19-year old Armayeh binti Sanuri, from Teluk Lerang, Kuala Mandor, in the district of Kuala Mandor, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, to Saudi Arabia.

She started working for the family of Hasim Ahmad Ali Bader Saeni and Madam Hanan Hasim in Madinah on March 24, 2009.

Armayeh admitted of receiving almost daily abuse and mistreatment from her female employer since the third month into her job.

Wounds and pus on her head.

Her head was often stepped on.

She suffered infectious ears, and were almost torn-like.

She was poured hot water too.

She could bear no longer. 

She seized the opportunity to flee from her working place when the door was not locked.

With wounds all over, she fled on January 26 at 3.30pm.

A neighbour, another Saudi citizen, who happened to spot her critical plight, helped to rush her to Al Ansar Hospital in Madinah at 10pm.

The medical staff immediately called the Indonesian Consulate General.
The Indonesian Consulate has agreements with some Saudi hospitals to notify the embassy or consulate, should an Indonesian national be admitted.

Armayeh's serious condition led her hospital stay transferred to King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah.
She underwent plastic surgery performed by team from King Abdullah Hospital at 1am.
She is currently, still receiving treatment.

Her female employer, Madam Hanan Hasin had been arrested.
Before the arrest was made, her employer visited Armayeh at the hospital.
The girl was offered SR18,000 (Rp 52.9 million) for her change of statement.
The offer was flatly turned down.

Although her salary is SR800 per month, she had just sent home SR6.000 Riyal (Rp 14,3 million) to her parents, during her 23 months stint in the Kingdom.

PT Aji Ayahbunda Sejati (AAS), who made Armayeh's presence possible in Saudi Arabia, bear full responsibility of the girl's welfare.

Her family was provided initial financial assistance of Rp 25 million (SR10,500), with insurance of Rp 100 million yet to receive.

PT Aji Ayah Bunda Sejati brought the parents of now 20-year old Armayeh binti Sanuri, to Saudi Arabia to see first hand of their daughter's condition.
The company provides their needs while in Saudi.

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From Frying Pan To Fire Runaway Maids End Up In Harsher Conditions

JEDDAH: Housemaids who flee their sponsors due to bad working conditions to seek work in the black labor market often end up in a situation of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

In many cases they find themselves at the mercy of sleazy labor brokers who send them to work illegally in conditions that are little different from the legal situations, and often much worse. 
“They seize our IDs, lock us up in secluded rooms and make us live in very difficult conditions, which is no less than indentured servitude,” a maid told Arab News on condition she not be named.
Nuriyyah, an Indonesian maid who has been working for two years in Saudi Arabia, describes the situation she found herself in as “slavery” after being legally recruited and brought to the Kingdom. The wage she ended up receiving was not enough to feed her family back home.
“My sponsor often delayed my payment under the pretext that he had other pressing commitments,” she said. “I had no other choice but to flee.”
Nuriyyah said she lived in a small apartment after her escape with a large number of illegal housemaids who came for Haj or Umrah and overstayed their pilgrimage visas.  She said the man who ran the house essentially acted as an illegal-labor broker.
But what Nuriyyah discovered is that people who hire maids illegally often end up being worse than employers who seek workers through legal channels and at greater expense.  “The new employer and his wife used to beat and humiliate me all the time,” she said. “They also took my iqama. I served them for my food only.”
The maid says she has never been paid for her work. Eventually she fled her illegal employers. She ended up under the Sitteen Bridge, a congregation point for foreign laborers who have fled their sponsors in the hope they will be picked up by the police and deported.
Another Indonesian maid, who did not want to be named, said though she had been an adventurer all her life and would work hard to earn money, she had fears that she might fall victim to inhuman practices on the hands of her new employers.
“I now live in a small house with a large number of illegal African and Asian housemaids,” she said. “The brokers who distribute us among their customers do not care much for what will happen to us. They are only after money.”
She added that she was living in very difficult conditions in this house but her need for money would force her to continue.
The unidentified Indonesian housemaid said she witnessed her co-workers being beaten by merciless employers who know that illegal domestic servants are essentially hostages with few choices.
“Many housemaids had similar experiences but were finally able to make some money and go back home. In order to succeed, you have to take chances,” she said.
Commenting on the issue, spokesman for Jeddah police Col. Misfer Al-Juaid said many of the houses that accommodate runaway maids are found in the districts of Al-Bawadi, Ghulail and Kandara.
“We carry out weekly raids on such houses after identifying them,” he said. “We arrest the illegal residents, take their fingerprints before handing them over to the Passport Department for deportation.”
After these workers end up in the custody of Saudi immigration authorities, a long process for exit clearance takes place. Often these workers have no ID because their passports are with the employers from whom they fled. Saudi authorities must work with foreign missions to establish identities and check for criminal backgrounds before they can be sent home. 
Al-Juaid pointed out that an illegal worker can be exposed to more abuse than legal workers, because sponsors are aware that there is little recourse for reporting or challenging abusive situations. “The illegal housemaids bear all these inhuman treatment in order not to be caught by the passport police and sent back home,” he added.
The most common form of maid abuse is not paying salaries, followed by physical and sexual abuse. The Saudi authorities do not offer statistics of the number of abuse cases reported to them, but the problem is acute enough that labor rights activists and foreign missions – especially of Indonesia and the Philippines – maintain shelters for fleeing maids, especially women.
Supervisor of the National Society for Human Rights in Makkah province Hussain Al-Sharif described violence against housemaids as inhuman and un-Islamic.
“Just because they are paying them money, some employers will come to believe that they literally own their housemaids and they have the right to ask them to do anything,” he said.
Al-Sharif agreed with Al-Juaid, saying that illegal workers face a greater chance of being abused with impunity.
“Violence against housemaids, whether they are legal or illegal stayers, is inhuman and totally against Islam,” he added. “We completely reject such practices and deplore exploitation of any human being.”
Al-Sharif asked all employers to consider the pressing conditions that drove the housemaids to come all they way from their countries in the first place. The main reason is remittances, the money they can save up to send home to feed their children or other family members. Not paying a maid could mean a child back home goes without food, clothing or medicines.

Source: A1 Saudi Arabia - January 12, 2011

to be continued...

The Maid - Why A No Malaysia, And A No - Yes, Singapore

Where Have S'pore's Indonesian Maids Gone? 
Radha Basu

It makes for an unlikely dream factory. At a whitewashed house on the outskirts of Jakarta, 120 Indonesian women are striving to fulfill a cherished migrant ambition.

They are training to be maids and to look after other people's homes in affluent parts of the region. It is often their only ticket out of penury.

Singapore has long been a coveted destination. But its allure is fading fast.

Ask how many want to work in Taiwan and 66 hands promptly shoot skywards. Another 39 favor Hong Kong, but only 15 cite Singapore as their dream destination.

Why is that, you ask. Singapore is safe, clean and so close to home. Why do they not want to work there?

"Money not enough, Ma'am," the women intone in unison. "Taiwan, Hong Kong got higher salary."

The labor squeeze that has long been a by-product of globalization and booming Asian economies seems to have reached the lower strata of the job market. Women, even from desperately poor backgrounds, can afford to be a bit choosier these days, as maid recruiters in Indonesia are finding out.

This group of women is being trained by Sejahtera Eka Pratama (SEP), an employment agency in Bekasi, near Jakarta.

A similar story is playing out in Pangkalan, a sleepy West Java hamlet about 250km away. Of the 5,000 families living there, at least 4,000 have a son or a daughter working in a low-paying job overseas. The hamlet's dirt roads are accessible only via motorbike.

Sukarma Mahmud, 50, a village recruiter who supplies Indonesian employment agencies with women willing to work as domestic labor overseas, is doing his rounds.

He is making his pitch to Kesih Suta, 23, as she sits on a mat in her parents' two-room home. She returned to her village last December after seven years away working as a maid in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

"You will earn more than you did for sure," he promises the petite woman whose last pay was around $320 per month. "You may even get four days off a month."

But Kesih, the eldest child of an odd-job worker and a farmer, looks unconvinced. "I can earn even more in Taiwan,' she says in Bahasa.

Sukarma changes tack. "You help me and I help you," he cajoles.

"You pay me something then?" she counters, as her two younger siblings - both under 10 - play nearby. "My parents could use the money.

Would 2 million rupiah (S$290) be enough, he asks.

'I'll think about it,' she smiles. 'No promises.'

Low pay, high qualifications
Indonesia is Singapore's biggest supplier of foreign domestic workers, with at least 90,000 of its citizens working in the Republic.

But a number of factors are taking the gloss off Singapore as a destination, as The Straits Times discovered during a recent visit to training centers and kampungs near Jakarta.

Interviews with 10 Jakarta-based employment agencies and dozens of women who have worked or plan to work as maids overseas found that low pay, high eligibility criteria and the surge in demand from Taiwan, where the women can earn twice what they can here, are undermining Singapore's appeal.

The relatively low wages that Singaporean employers pay for domestic help compared with rates in Hong Kong or Taiwan are by far the biggest disincentive.

An Indonesian maid with no experience who comes to Singapore gets around S$380 a month, though some recruiters are trying to increase that to S$450, with at least one day off.

With wage levels left strictly to market forces and individual employers and maids to determine, some earn even less. Some agencies in Indonesia still recruit maids for S$350 a month or less. Some of these operators are unlicensed.

In Hong Kong, where minimum wage laws are in place, a maid earns at least HK$3,580 (S$581), with at least one day off a week. Unlike in Singapore, domestic workers there are also covered by employment laws and entitled to all public holidays off plus paid annual leave.

Maids in Taiwan can command at least NT$15,840 ($678), with four days off a month. They are also paid extra for working on days off.

Malaysia used to be at the bottom of the table when it came to paying Indonesian maids, but the Jakarta government banned its maids from working there last year after a rise in alleged cases of abuse. Maids in the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Middle East still receive S$350, or less, but the employers absorb all recruitment costs, unlike in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Also, typically, better-off Middle Eastern households employ a few maids each, so the individual workload is lighter.

While Singapore employers generally pay less than those in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the eligibility criteria are the highest.

A worker has to be at least 23 years old and have at least eight years' education to come here. Taiwan and Hong Kong only require domestic workers to be 21 or over. There are no official education criteria, though maids generally have at least primary-level education.

Nurfaizi Suwandi, chairman of Apjati, the Indonesian Manpower Services Association, says: "Twenty-three-year-olds might find it hard to want to work in Singapore for S$380 or S$400, when 21-year-olds are getting close to S$700 in Taiwan."

The body has 330 members, making it Indonesia's largest association for employment agencies.

"The 19- and 20-year-olds who want to come and work in Singapore don't stand a chance."

A few years ago, domestic workers fresh from their villages initially went to Malaysia or Singapore to gain experience, before moving on to higher-paid jobs elsewhere. As Singapore provided an important training ground, it seemed fair that maids were paid less, say agents.

For instance, when Titin Kartini, 26, the eldest of three children of penniless West Java farmers, decided to work overseas a decade ago, she chose Singapore. She earned S$230 a month and worked for a family with three young children.

She had no days off and was not allowed to go out on her own, but she did not mind. "I just focused on learning how to cook and clean, and I also picked up Mandarin," she says. "All I wanted was to move to Hong Kong."

She did so in 2004, and worked there until 2008 for around S$600 a month.

Titin has spent the past three years teaching English at a village school, but is now keen to be off again, this time to Taiwan. "I have always had good employers, but I really want to earn more," says the articulate and confident woman, who can cook for up to 30 people at a time.

Taiwan is attractive not just for the $700 salary.

Unlike in Hong Kong, where she says she was forced to take four days off a month by law - and in doing so spending precious money - she says Taiwan allows her to work on her days off.

By working three Sundays a month, she can earn an additional $70, she calculates.

Opportunities elsewhere
But experienced workers like Titin are not the only ones flocking to Taiwan and Hong Kong these days, says Charles Butar Butar, who heads SEP. Increasingly, even Indonesians with limited or no experience also prefer to start out there.

His agency now supplies around 120 maids to Taiwan and 100 to Hong Kong every month, up from around 80 and 50, respectively, five years ago. There has been a corresponding decrease in supply to Singapore, with only 20 or so of his maids headed here, down from 100 five years ago.

Said Butar Butar: "The Indonesians are increasingly seen to be more obedient and willing to fit into the Chinese culture. And Taiwan and Hong Kong employers don't mind if they have little or no experience."

The Singapore market is getting hit by another factor as well - a depleting supply of Filipino domestic workers, who have long been the Indonesians' rivals in the region.

"For some reason, Filipinas are not coming in the numbers they used to be," says the agency boss. "Indonesians are taking their place."

Filipino maids are increasingly turning down Singapore jobs unless they are paid a Philippine government-stipulated minimum salary of US$400 ($506). This has led to a surge in demand for Indonesians here.

The Philippine Embassy in Singapore confirms that the supply of Filipina domestic workers in the region has been falling in recent years.

More of them prefer to work as retail assistants and factory workers, or go further afield for higher-paying jobs as domestic workers in Canada, Spain and Italy or factory workers in Taiwan, its labor attache Rodolfo Sabulao told The Straits Times.

Indonesians, too, are navigating hitherto unexplored fields, points out Nurfaizi. They are finding jobs on cruise ships in the United States and Europe, and - through a government-to-government program - as health-care workers in Japan.

Even bribes do not work

In a region flush with opportunity, it is small wonder then that many young women in Indonesian villages are reluctant to come to Singapore.

After failing to convince Kesih, Sukarma, the village recruiter, drops in on Zubaidah Nono Suoyana, 27, a former factory worker now planning to work overseas as a maid.

Zubaidah has two young children, including a month-old son, and her husband's pay as an odd-job laborer is not enough for the family. She says she heard on the radio that girls willing to go to Singapore stand to gain an advance payment of 4 million rupiah.

As she has no experience as a maid - a stint in Saudi Arabia was aborted last year when her employer sent her home within a month - Zubaidah initially agrees to work for anything above $350 a month.

But the moment she learns that she might have to live on only $20 a month - or possibly even $10 - for up to nine months while she pays off the recruitment costs, she lets out a small shriek. "I won't even be able to breathe on that money. No way I could survive."

She says her Saudi employer's wife sent her back because she believed her husband was paying her too much attention.

"In Saudi Arabia, there were no deductions," she says. "How do maids survive in Singapore for so long with so little money?"

As he leaves her home, Sukarma claims that he increasingly has to pay maids and their families up to 5 million rupiah to coax them to even consider Singapore.

Recruiters emphasize that the supply of maids from Indonesia has not dried up. But there is a definite crunch in the supply of quality maids.

Says recruitment agent Rudy Hart: "There will always be some who want to go, but their quality is in question." He knows of women who take the "ang pow" money and come to Singapore, only to find that the work is too hard for them. "They then run away and return home," he says. "The agents try to chase them for refunds, but often they don't get any."

Dreaded English test
Singapore's supply is further depleted by the exacting entrance requirements, say Indonesian agents. In April 2005, Singapore introduced a compulsory test in English for all maids that radically changed the game, says Butar Butar.

With better-educated women generally gunning for higher-paying jobs in Hong Kong and Taiwan or other professions elsewhere - and Malaysia out of bounds due to the Indonesian government ban - Singapore is increasingly becoming the place for those who cannot really go anywhere else.

Even if they have completed the mandatory eight years of schooling that Singapore requires, they hardly know any English, points out Antony Rais, who teaches English at Sumber Kencana Sejahtera, a large employment agency on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Although statistics from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower show that nearly 95 per cent of all domestic workers pass the test, Indonesian agents say the number for Indonesians is lower.

Says Mr Hart: "The 95 per cent includes Filipinos, who probably find the test easy." In his agency, which supplies around 50 girls to Singapore every month, about a third fail the test.

In Butar Butar's agency, the pass rate sometimes falls even lower. "Just last week, I sent nine girls to Singapore and six returned after failing the test," he says.

One sultry afternoon earlier this month,  Antony coached a class of 40.

The women prepare for the class by memorizing the answers to 400 questions similar to those found in the Singapore test, with a Bahasa-English dictionary at their side.

The questions are framed in such a way that the women learn not only the basics of English, but also information directly relevant to their work as domestic workers. They also learn about their rights.

"Where in Singapore can you work?" asks Mr Antony, first in English and then in Bahasa. "Only in my employer's house," choruses the class, picking the correct answer from the list of four options.

Later, they learn what a "three-in-one" coffee mix is, how Indonesian helpers should be given at least one day off a month when they work in Singapore and how they can call their agent, embassy or a hotline run by the Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore) if they are not paid.

But learning by rote in a group setting is not always effective. As the class progresses, some play with their pencils or stare at the corridor outside, lost in thought.

Tough employers
While novices are eager to work in Singapore, some returnees are reluctant to go back.

Many narrate stories of how Singaporeans can be tough employers, unlike those in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many rue what they call their lack of freedom.

From June 2009, when Siti Nurjanah Surjono left Jakarta to go to Singapore to work, till October last year, her parents did not hear from her even once.

Then, on Hari Raya last year, she called her mother. "It was like she came back from the dead," recounts her mother, Julekha Sutana, 45.

Nurjanah, 24, claims that from the time she began working for a family of five adults in Jurong, she was not allowed to leave her employer's home on her own, or even to make a phone call. Her primary duty was to look after the ailing matriarch of the family. She also claims that both she and the elderly woman were not given enough to eat.

Shortly after her first phone call home - 16 months later - the elderly woman died. Nurjanah was returned to the agency and asked to be sent back home.

Meanwhile, her sister Marfuah Surjono, 27, spent eight years working for two families in Hong Kong without incident. She was given enough food, had regular days off and the keys to the house. "My employers even took me to Ocean Park," she beams, referring to a theme park.

Marfuah, who now works as a Cantonese teacher to trainee maids, says she frequently shares her story - and that of her sister's - with prospective maids: "They need to be informed about the risks before they can make choices."

But Singapore still retains its attraction for one group of women who would work here again in a heartbeat - maids who have had fair employers and enjoyed their stints in the Lion City.

Siti Sopiah, 28, a farmer's wife with a one-year-old son worked for the same Bukit Timah family - a married couple, their son and the child's elderly grandmother - for seven years.

She said her employers were concerned about her well-being, frequently asking her if she was happy. They also bought her clothes and gave her generous ang pows during Chinese New Year.

When she left - she says she wanted to "take a rest and get married" - they gave her four gold chains. "All my time there, I only received kindness," she says. "And I tried to pay it back by working hard."

She is now training to return to Singapore. "It's clean, safe and the people are kind," she adds.

The best part, she says, is that her agency is negotiating a salary of at least S$450. "I am really looking forward to going back."

Source: The Jakarta Globe - March 27, 2011

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (10)

Runaway Maids Eating Into Family Budgets  
By RIMA AL-MUKHTAR 

JEDDAH: There are many reports of housemaids being abused or beaten, and occasionally even murdered. However, there is another side to the story.
The large number of housemaids running away from their employers is causing untold problems, including social embarrassments and additional financial burdens for many Saudi families.
“It costs a lot to recruit a housemaid, with fees that go up to SR15,000. This includes recruitment fees, plane ticket and visa,” said Abu Faisal, a recruitment office manager in Jeddah. “If the maid runs away, the employer loses all the money he spent hiring her.”
Maids run away for several reasons, but they are mostly greedy and search for jobs in other households to make more money, according to Abu Faisal.
“Many maids run away from their sponsors as soon as they land in the Kingdom, knowing that they will find a job no matter what, for people are always looking for maids,” he said.
“They know this and plan to run away before even arriving here. Sometimes they arrange it with their friends to guarantee them a better salary,” he added.
“They just need someone to recruit them and pay for their visa and ticket, and once they are here they start looking for jobs with better wages,” said Abu Faisal.
Runaway maids accuse their previous employers of abuse and mistreatment. “My Indonesian maid once told me that her friend was looking for work. I asked her to bring her by so that I could hire her to work for me. Once she came I asked about her previous job and why she left, and that’s when she said that her sponsor used to deprive her of food and did not pay her for her work,” said Moneera Al-Qahtani, housewife and mother.
“When she told me the name of her sponsor I knew she was lying, because it turned out to be my cousin, and later I found out that she worked for him for only two days before she ran away,” Al-Qahtani added.
Frustrated employers are no longer recruiting from outside the Kingdom, but look for help from within.  “I will no longer pay so much money, knowing that my maid might run away and cost me even more. For years now I have been asking my friends and family to bring me maids. I don’t care if they are illegal or don’t have iqama, I only care that my house is clean and my maid does not cost me more than SR1,000 a month,” said Nahed Ibraheem, a working woman.
“I have bad experiences with maids running away even if they are treated like my own daughters. I don’t know why they have the urge to leave suddenly, even when I tell them that I would never hold them if they wanted to go. They just have to tell me in advance so I can arrange for another one,” she added.
At least some employers see maids as a threat to their safety and private life.
“Everyone in the Kingdom looks at us as if we are spoiled and vulgar, for they think our maids are running away because we abuse them and do not provide them with food. They don’t want to admit that we are the people who are suffering, because we are letting complete strangers inside our houses to look into our drawers,” said Kholoud Badr, a high school teacher.
“After years I found out that my maid was a part time prostitute, offering her services to drivers in our neighborhood. This freaked me out because I have two young daughters, and it’s not safe for them to stay at home alone. My question is this: How can you make sure that your maid is not a psychopath or a murderer? We don’t think about these things; we only care about the service,” she added.
Police only arrest maids who are accused of a crime, not runaways, said First Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq, spokesman for Jeddah police.
“According to the regulations, policemen are not allowed to get involved in the search of maids who run away from their sponsors. We only interfere when the employer accuses his maid of robbery or any criminal act,” he said. “We then liaise with the Passport Department to join forces and search for the suspect.”
All attempts to get a response from the Passport Department failed.

Source: Arab News - April 22, 2011

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Some maids run away because they miss their children after minding their employers' kids.

Not to deter runaway maids, personal bond among employers and employees need to to be cultivated.

It was said that no less than 50 housemaids abandon their Saudi employers every month.

Some maids, coming from remote places, were not train to work, thus were unable to operate electrical appliances.

They are unable to perform basic jobs like handling electrical appliances and so make mistakes, something that angers their employers resulting in beatings and torture.

The housemaids then either run away or the sponsor tries to get rid of them.

Most of these women who are from the rural areas, they do not know how to use modern gadgets.

Breaking or mishandling them will be rewarded with scoldings and beatings by their employers.

More domestic workers are expected to run away from their employers before and after the month of Ramadhan.

The big workload during the Ramadhan season drives many of these maids to leave their employment.

Work period starts from dawn to past midnight until the following morning.

Although it is not only illegal, but also a violation of human rights, many Saudi families loan their housemaids and other household helps, to extended members of their families during Ramadan.

This is an encouraged reason for the runaway.

Those with great intention to run away during Ramadhan but was unable to, will do so after the season.

Some housemaids run away due to unpaid wages or delay in salaries.

Thus it adds up to losing situation that claims Saudi families lose more than SR500 million a year because of these domestic workers who run away.

Runaway maids had become a phenomenon.

But those maids who came to the country on maid visas specifically to elope with their suitors, led to much to much chagrin to their employers who had paid much money to process the paperwork to get the maid to the Kingdom.

A maid who had worked for four years in Saudi Arabia told Me of her friend who was enticed by a family driver to abandon her employer, only to have herself rape and kept by this driver, without the employer knew of her whereabout.

She was kept in an isolated place, with all contacts cutoff.

Lately, there are reports of Saudi police busting prostitution ring involving Asian housemaids who fled from their employers.

Some runaway maids were then recruited by agencies that are accredited by the Saudi government, and some others were outsourced into the black labour market.

Some were offered an alternative family, but were charged commission.

Both employers and employees were charged fees. 

Read On...

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From Frying Pan To Fire Runaway Maids End Up In Harsher Conditions

JEDDAH: Housemaids who flee their sponsors due to bad working conditions to seek work in the black labor market often end up in a situation of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
In many cases they find themselves at the mercy of sleazy labor brokers who send them to work illegally in conditions that are little different from the legal situations, and often much worse. 
“They seize our IDs, lock us up in secluded rooms and make us live in very difficult conditions, which is no less than indentured servitude,” a maid told Arab News on condition she not be named.
Nuriyyah, an Indonesian maid who has been working for two years in Saudi Arabia, describes the situation she found herself in as “slavery” after being legally recruited and brought to the Kingdom. The wage she ended up receiving was not enough to feed her family back home.
“My sponsor often delayed my payment under the pretext that he had other pressing commitments,” she said. “I had no other choice but to flee.”
Nuriyyah said she lived in a small apartment after her escape with a large number of illegal housemaids who came for Haj or Umrah and overstayed their pilgrimage visas.  She said the man who ran the house essentially acted as an illegal-labor broker.
But what Nuriyyah discovered is that people who hire maids illegally often end up being worse than employers who seek workers through legal channels and at greater expense.  “The new employer and his wife used to beat and humiliate me all the time,” she said. “They also took my iqama. I served them for my food only.”
The maid says she has never been paid for her work. Eventually she fled her illegal employers. She ended up under the Sitteen Bridge, a congregation point for foreign laborers who have fled their sponsors in the hope they will be picked up by the police and deported.
Another Indonesian maid, who did not want to be named, said though she had been an adventurer all her life and would work hard to earn money, she had fears that she might fall victim to inhuman practices on the hands of her new employers.
“I now live in a small house with a large number of illegal African and Asian housemaids,” she said. “The brokers who distribute us among their customers do not care much for what will happen to us. They are only after money.”
She added that she was living in very difficult conditions in this house but her need for money would force her to continue.
The unidentified Indonesian housemaid said she witnessed her co-workers being beaten by merciless employers who know that illegal domestic servants are essentially hostages with few choices.
“Many housemaids had similar experiences but were finally able to make some money and go back home. In order to succeed, you have to take chances,” she said.
Commenting on the issue, spokesman for Jeddah police Col. Misfer Al-Juaid said many of the houses that accommodate runaway maids are found in the districts of Al-Bawadi, Ghulail and Kandara.
“We carry out weekly raids on such houses after identifying them,” he said. “We arrest the illegal residents, take their fingerprints before handing them over to the Passport Department for deportation.”
After these workers end up in the custody of Saudi immigration authorities, a long process for exit clearance takes place. Often these workers have no ID because their passports are with the employers from whom they fled. Saudi authorities must work with foreign missions to establish identities and check for criminal backgrounds before they can be sent home. 
Al-Juaid pointed out that an illegal worker can be exposed to more abuse than legal workers, because sponsors are aware that there is little recourse for reporting or challenging abusive situations. “The illegal housemaids bear all these inhuman treatment in order not to be caught by the passport police and sent back home,” he added.
The most common form of maid abuse is not paying salaries, followed by physical and sexual abuse. The Saudi authorities do not offer statistics of the number of abuse cases reported to them, but the problem is acute enough that labor rights activists and foreign missions – especially of Indonesia and the Philippines – maintain shelters for fleeing maids, especially women.
Supervisor of the National Society for Human Rights in Makkah province Hussain Al-Sharif described violence against housemaids as inhuman and un-Islamic.
“Just because they are paying them money, some employers will come to believe that they literally own their housemaids and they have the right to ask them to do anything,” he said.
Al-Sharif agreed with Al-Juaid, saying that illegal workers face a greater chance of being abused with impunity.
“Violence against housemaids, whether they are legal or illegal stayers, is inhuman and totally against Islam,” he added. “We completely reject such practices and deplore exploitation of any human being.”
Al-Sharif asked all employers to consider the pressing conditions that drove the housemaids to come all they way from their countries in the first place. The main reason is remittances, the money they can save up to send home to feed their children or other family members. Not paying a maid could mean a child back home goes without food, clothing or medicines.

Source: A1 Saudi Arabia - January 12, 2011

The Maid - When Society Stood By Them

Parents Spoiling Children With Chaperon ‘Services’  
By MARIAM NIHAL

JEDDAH: Parents and teachers have criticized the treatment of maids forced to accompany children to school and act as their personal assistants or chaperons.

They told Arab News it is a disturbing trend and demeaning to the maids.
Samah Bukhary, a teacher at an international school in Jeddah, feels maids are abused and disrespected when they are made to do everyday chores children can do themselves.
“As soon as students leave their classes, maids are usually seen waiting outside to carry children’s bags to the cars and often they even carry their drinks. It would be an understatement to say this is a little too supercilious.”
Most upper and middle class families in Saudi Arabia keep maids. Most parents argue they provide maids to escort their children to schools on safety grounds.
“Since I cannot drop my child off to school every morning, she has to go with a driver who I cannot trust completely, So I send my maid along. If my maid has to wait, then she does and that is that,” said Ghada Amdar, 34.
Others feel this is only an excuse for the way parents spoil their children.
“It is impractical. What about other countries or even children in the same school who do not have chaperons? It is lame to believe this safety theory. Children can hold their own belongings and look after themselves. That is exactly what they are supposed to be learning,” Ali Nadeem, 35, told Arab News.
Maids usually assemble before school ends to pick up children and help escort them home.
Sana Mahmoud, 25, thinks it is a chance for maids to get together and enjoy time off work.
“They enjoy the gatherings. I usually send my maid an hour before it is home time for the kids so she can hang out with her friends. She does not mind the wait.”
Private tutors say the idea of using maids is bizarre. “The girls always bring along maids who sit for three hours doing nothing. I have witnessed outrageous incidents where the student uses the washroom and the maid goes in to flush it and clean up after her because her majesty could not be bothered to do so. That is just shameful,” said one of them.
Mahira Awais, a 34-year-old parent, believes maids can hinder a child’s development.
“If this is the way then how would we instill a sense of responsibility in children? They leave trash lying around after break time but this is not their home and the maids should not clean up their mess. Except, with their personal maids at schools too, parents ignore the bigger picture.”
Maher Atallah, a 46-year-old father, believes it is a trend that happens at local schools only. “International schools do not tolerate bad behavior, it is against their ethos. Children need to develop independent traits and look after themselves as that helps build confidence.”

Source: Arab News - April 15, 2011
 

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The article above reminded Me of one in Stomp - March 27, 2011, picked up by other papers, foreign too, bloggers, became topic for days, and turned into hot issue.
It's here.

NSmen Trained To Be Fit, Strong Soldiers -- Yet This One Makes Maid Carry Backpack

STOMPer Zhivago was shocked to find this photo on Facebook, apparently showing a national serviceman making his maid carry his backpack.

Said the STOMPer:

"This photo is taken off Facebook with the caption 'Why we need foreign talents in Singapore!'

"It was taken near Tanah Merah MRT."

STOMPer totallyshocked who also received this picture said:

"Our new generation of NSmen.

"I received this photo from a friend.

"As you can see, he was busy SMSing away while his helper carried his field pack.

"Ah boy, might as well bring her to war next time too."

STOMPer iffin said:

"Is army discipline getting worse nowadays?

"Here is an army boy asking his maid to carry his field pack for him.

"Maybe he is not manly enough to carry in his own?"

******

Three days later, those with artistic talent came up with these...

Sedia! Here Comes The SAF Maid Platoon

The story on the NSman who made his maid carry his field pack has sparked a series of parodies by netizens, proving that Singaporeans do have a quirky sense of humour.

One person with an obvious artistic talent even drew a spoof of the incident.

The original photo was first sent in by STOMPer Zhivago, who said that it was taken near Tanah Merah MRT station.

STOMPer Platoon Leader, who sent in pictures of these parodies, said:

"I had a great laugh when I saw these parodies!

"It's good to know that Singaporeans look at the lighter side of things, and laugh at ourselves.

"My favourite picture has to be the one showing the 'maid platoon' marching out of the parade square."

 

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Recruit Who Made Maid Carry Field Pack Owns Up: Mindef

The SAF serviceman who was photographed with his maid carrying his field pack has identified himself to his Commander and has been counselled, says Mindef.

The photographed was posted in STOMP on Mar 27 and had ignited an uproar among netizens, who questioned if youths today are too 'spoilt' and 'pampered'.

In a letter to The Straits Times Forum Page, Colonel Desmond Tan, Director of Mindef Public Affairs, said:

"The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has completed its investigation into the recent case of a serviceman who was photographed with his domestic helper carrying his field pack (“Deafening silence in army backpack saga’’ by Mr Patrick Tan; Saturday).

"The serviceman concerned has identified himself to his Commander.

"He was a recruit undergoing the Physical Training Preparatory phase prior to the Basic Military Training phase.

"The recruit is remorseful for his actions and realises that it was wrong for him to have allowed this.

"He has been counselled and continues his training. The SAF has reminded all servicemen to be mindful of their conduct in public."

Source: Singapore Seen. Stomp - April 4, 2011

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (9)

Kikim Komalasari's body is still in the mortuary of Saudi Arabia.
She was found in a dumpster in Abha, about 600 kilometers south of Jeddah, few days before Eidul Adha.

The death could not have come at a worse time for relations between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Indonesians were reeling hot against the Sumiati Salan Mustapa's torture incident.
Kikim's family is waiting anxiously to accord her proper burial in Indonesia.

The cases highlighted growing public awareness of the hardships faced by about 3.2 million Indonesian migrant workers, more than a third of whom work in the Middle East.

Kikim is from Cianjur, so is Halimah.
Both used to be housemaids in Saudi Arabia, and both died alone, away from hometown and family.

While Kikim's death sent enough waves for the Indonesians to start protecting their women, Halimah's death, under the Saudi Bridge last August 2010, seems did not move any eyelid...

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Siti Rodiah, a female migrant worker from Sindangbarang, Cianjur.

The 23-year old left for Saudi Arabia through PJTKI PT Boksan Labarindo in Jakarta in mid 2009 to help with the family's economy.

Her mother, 48-year old Nenak was surprised to be informed by PT Boksan of her daughter's returning home but needs treatment.

The mother was confused.
She knew her daughter is about to finish her contract.

She was even more surprised when doctor in Polri Hospital in Jakarta said, the girl suffered from depression, and asked to see a psychiatrist.

She has no money, so she brought Siti Rodiah home but the daughter did not even recognise her own mother.

******

Two days later, on January 19, 2011, newspaper carried a report about 25-year old Yanti Binti Mimid from Pondok Lami in Songgom, Gekbrong district in Cianjur.

She had just started working for her employer's family, Faez Abdul Aziz Al Utaibi in Jummun, Makkatul Mukarramah.

Yanti could sense her employer's immoral behaviour towards her.
He always seize the opportunity to hold her hand, or to kiss her, while she did the house chores.
She resisted all his advances.

Fearing for the worst yet awaiting, Yanti locked herself for three days in the bathroom, then fled to Masjidil Haram.
In the Grand Mosque, she met several housemaids from Cianjur, facing the same fate as her.

In the Grand Mosque too, she was caught by her employer, a police officer stationed at the Grand Mosque.

He brought her home.
She was being roughly manhandled by him, kicked and slapped for four straight days.

Yanti, gathered her courage, asked her employer for a transfer to another household.
He agreed, but not to another household, instead, straight back to her homeland, Indonesia.

Yanti had her strength for only two weeks while in Saudi.

Back home, Yanti laid weak, her whole body aching, especially her hip, where she was continuously kicked for four straight days.

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (8)

Maid Abuser Alleges Indonesian Embassy Wanted SR1 million
SAMAH YASEEN

MADINA: Umm Muhammad, the Saudi woman convicted and imprisoned for physically abusing her Indonesian housemaid in Madina, has claimed that the maid was suffering psychological problems when she arrived for work in the country. “Residents of the neighborhood where she lived in Indonesia called her crazy,” Umm Muhammad claimed.
“When she arrived I noticed her acting strangely.” Umm Muhammad claims the maid urinated involuntarily and that she had asked the recruitment office to take her back. However, the recruitment official said that he could not do so because the maid was still working. “We (the family) decided to have her treated. My daughters took her to several hospitals but they all refused to examine her because she was on a trial period and still had no residency permit.” Umm Muhammad claimed that the maid used to hurt herself, including making cuts to her legs and scalp, “without showing any sign of pain”.
“My daughter’s housemaid happened to be from the same town, and she told me that she was known there for her weird behavior, hurting herself and others, and that they called her crazy,” said Umm Muhammad.
Umm Muhammad alleged further that some woman called her on the phone and said she intended to accuse her (Umm Muhammad) on the Internet of torturing the housemaid. “I didn’t take the call seriously.”
She said she was shocked at the maid’s accusation that resulted in her being imprisoned. She also claimed that the Indonesian embassy wanted one million riyal in exchange for dropping the case.
“The lawyer and everybody at one court session saw her pulling out her nail without showing any pain, and I think that’s evidence that she tortured herself,” said Umm Muhammad.
Umm Muhammad’s daughter, a laboratory specialist, claimed that she used to clean the cuts the maid allegedly inflicted on herself. The maid “used to remove the bandages and deepened the wounds”, claimed the daughter. 
– Okaz/Saudi Gazette

Source: Saudi Gazette - March 18, 2011

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Umm Muhammad claimed her maid had urinated involuntarily.

It reminded me of a maid whom I had blogged here, who was caught mixing her urine with the food she was cooking for her employers.
She believed this would make them love her.

The Saudi employer saw the maid adding urine to the food she cooked for the family and made an official report of the incidence.

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Split Family Blamed On Maid’s Sorcery 
Maid Jailed For Five Years But May Be Free Under Royal Pardon

A Saudi family who suffered from a series of problems has accused its Indonesian housemaid of causing them by using witchcraft to punish them for bad treatment of her, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The maid had confessed to the police that she did cast a malicious spell on the family but later retracted her confession after colleagues warned her she could be executed for sorcery in the conservative Gulf Kingdom. Yet the court sentenced her to five years in prison.

Just a few weeks after she was jailed, police told her she would be released under a pardon of thousands of prisoners announced by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia following his return from a treatment trip abroad.

“Police told her employers to finish procedures because they want to deport her but they refused, saying she must first break the magic spell she cast on the family,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said in a report from Riyadh.

“The mother believes the housemaid is responsible for all problems that have befallen the family, including her divorce from her husband, the divorce of her daughter from her husband and her elder son’s decision to leave the house on the grounds he no longer stands the family…she gave police some pieces of papers she had found at home written in Arabic and Indonesian showing the housemaid was behind those problems.”

The paper said the mother offered to finish procedures to deport her employee provided the maid dismantles the spell. But the maid told the police “breaking the magic spell requires that she should be in Indonesia not abroad.”

“The mother is still refusing to sign the maid’s papers so she can be deported while the maid insists she can not break the spell in Saudi Arabia.”

Source: Emirates 247 - March 15, 2011

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Two days later, a Saudi man from the central town of Afeef was tidying up his house when he found talismans and other pieces of papers carrying strange writings concealed under a bed, Okaz newspaper reported.

He took the pieces of papers to the local office of the Islamic law enforcement authority in the Gulf Kingdom.
They told him that those are part of sorcery work.

The man told them he suspects that his housemaid left them to put his family under magic spell.
His son had fallen ill and his family had been in crisis since the maid left to her country.

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (7)

No Evidence Against Saudi Employer: Lawyer
Indonesian Maid Abuse Sentence Appealed

RIYADH (Khaled al-Shaei) The Appeals Court in Mecca issued on Monday a ruling to revoke the jail sentence imposed on a Saudi woman charged with torturing her Indonesian maid and to review the case on the grounds that evidence condemning the defendant was not strong enough.

The judge that passed the three-year jail sentence on a Saudi woman for the physical assault of her 23-year-old Indonesian maid, Sumiati Mustapa, had committed several mistakes that were enough to revoke the ruling, said the defendant’s lawyer Ahmed al-Rashed.

“We objected to the sentence at the Court of Appeals because several of its legal procedures were missing,” Rashed told AlArabiya.net. “And we demanded that my client be released on bail until the case is reviewed.”

Judge’s mistakes

Rashed explained that the verdict gave priority to public right over private right. When charging the defendant with human trafficking, the judge made the plaintiff and not the defendant give her testimony under oath while it should have been the other way round, and the verdict was handed down quickly.

“For these three reasons, the case will be re-opened, but in case the judge insists on the previous verdict, the case will be assigned to another judge.”

The judge, Rashed added, may have been affected by the media hype that accompanied the case along with the point of view of the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh.

“This is how he handled the case and I do not blame him, yet he based his verdict on civil and not religious laws and that is why we have the right to object to it.”

Rashed denied that his client had admitted to abusing and assaulting the maid and expressed his concerns over the imprisonment of the defendant, who is in her 60s, for almost two months without proof despite her health condition and the fact that she is on a wheel chair.

“My client denied committing the crime and the media reports that her son made on her are not true and not documented in the case files.”

According to Rashed, the defendant told the court that the maid has a psychological disorder and that she is the one who inflicted injuries upon herself, yet when the maid was referred to a psychiatrist and his report proved that she was sane, the judge considered this a proof that the defendant is guilty.

“The judge assumed that if the maid is sane, then it is her employer who did that to her because the maid works for her. He also passed the verdict in accordance with the human trafficking law and this does not apply to my client.”

Indonesian public opinion

Rashed accused the Indonesian government of trying to take advantage of the maid’s case in order to make financial gains.

“The Indonesian public opinion made Saudis seem like monsters in order to raise the fees for hiring Indonesian maids and this is what happened.”

On the other hand, spokesman of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Michael Tene objected to the initial sentence, which he considered very lenient when compared to the damages inflicted upon the maid.

Tene said that maid’s lawyers will appeal the verdict and explained that the torture to which Mustapa was subjected requires at least 15 years in jail.

Indonesian President Susilo Mambang Yudhoyono also issued a statement slamming the violence against Mustapa and dispatched Indonesian Minister of Women’s Affairs Linda Gumelar to follow up on the case.

Sumiati Mustapa’s case

The case of Indonesian maid Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa made headlines last year in both Saudi Arabia and Indonesia after the 23-year-old maid accused her employer, a widow in her 60s, of abusing her by beating and burning different parts of her body, especially her neck, left hand and upper lip, where she sustained severe injuries.

The employer denied the maid’s accusations and said Mustapa’s injuries were the result of a suicide attempt as she tried to jump from the balcony.

After standing trial, the employer was handed down three years in jail on charges of human trafficking.

After Rashed and the defendant’s other lawyer, Abdul Rahman Hajjar, filed an appeal, the Court of Appeals in Mecca ordered the General Court in Medina, which passed the initial jail verdict, to review the case.
(Translated from the Arabic by Sonia Farid).

Source: Al-Arabiya - Tuesday, March 15, 2011

More about Sumiati Mustapa can be read here.

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Shortly after Sumiati’s case came to light, another Indonesian maid,

36-year old Kikim Komalasari, from Mekarwangi village, in Haurwangi, Cianjur, was found tortured to death.

Her husband, a workshop officer in Sukabumi, was only home on weekends due to working outstation. 46-year old Maman Ali Nurjaman had, before her departure, forbid her from going to Saudi Arabia.

She was adamant of going.
She left home in June 2009, reaching Madinah on July 7, leaving behind not only the husband, but three children, 18-year old Yosi Nurmalasari, 10-year old Galih Permadi, and Fikri Agustian, 5, who has lung infection.
Since Kikim had already left, all Maman and his three children could do then, was to pray for her safety in the foreign land and be home again in Cianjur.

Nobody in the family then believed the youngest of fourteen siblings, was killed by her employer.

About a month after she worked in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, she called home, happy with her workload, although looking after five kids at a go.
She was happy to be able to travel, along with the employer's family during sightseeing.

In November 2009, she called again, enquiring about her children, husband and her mother, whose house is next to hers.
She assured her sister, Siti, who had twice received her call, that she was with a good employer.

Six months before Kikim was found dead, again, she mentioned of being with a good employer, when she called for the last time, enquiring about her children and husband's welfare.

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Two days before the news of his wife's death reached him,

Maman felt the urge to clean the pictures of their wedding, which he had never done before.

Their eldest child, Yossi, dream of the mother returned home with a very big smile.
The dream was related to the father.
In November 19, 2010, the mother was found in a dump in the southern city of Abha.

Kikim’s neck was reportedly slashed and she sustained cuts to the rest of her body.
Signs of severe physical abuse in different parts of her dead body showed that she had been tortured to death.
Following Kikim’s death, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa summoned Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Indonesia Abdurrahman Mohammad Amen Al-Khayyat for the third time in a week.
As there are many Indonesian maids in the Kingdom, it stirred particular anger in Indonesia.

The two cases of the physical abuse suffered by the Indonesian maids, Kikim dead and Sumiati in a critical condition within one week triggered riots in Indonesia, and condemnation by the government in Jakarta.
The two tragedies had also promoted calls by Saudi activists to pressure their government to impose strict rules to thwart any future maltreatment to foreign workers in their country.
It further led to demands that Indonesian women no longer be allowed to work as maids in Saudi Arabia.

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Kikim's sponsor is said to be Ali Said Al Gahtani from Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Her employer was held over her death, five days before the recent Eidul Adha, in the second week of November.

She angered him by her maltreatment of his ageing mother and hitting his handicapped children.
He used an aluminum bar to beat her for four consecutive days, and inflicted grievous harm on her, hoping she would provide better treatment for his mother.
She then fled his house to a nearby building under construction.

She sustained injuries from a fall onto building materials.
He found her at the site and wanted to take her to hospital, but she refused.
He then took her back to his house, locked her in a room hoping she will recover from her wounds but she did not.

After giving up hope that she would get better, he killed her with an iron tool and put her body in a garbage dumpster on a street.
She died from injuries, then thrown out of the house.
She was dumped in a waste bin, where police found the body in the southwestern province of Abha on Thursday, 5 Dzulhijjah 1431, November 11, 2010.
The body was taken to King Khaled Hospital for forensic examination, and the employer was arrested.

His wife was taken into custody for two weeks, pending investigations, and she was released after admitting that she knew what her husband was doing to the maid
She would stand trial for hiding information on her husband’s torture of the maid.
The Shariah Court is scheduled to look into her cover up of her husband’s actions, authorities added.

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Insurance of 55 million rupiah had been surrendered to Kikim's husband and his brother, Atang Jaelani on November 20.

Her body, meanwhile, is still in the mortuary of Saudi Arabia.
The family is waiting anxiously to accord her proper burial in Indonesia. 

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (6)

Rp 700 Million Still Needed to Buy Back Life of Condemned Maid in Saudi Arabia
Ismira Lutfia & Rahmat | March 07, 2011

At least Rp 700 million ($80,000) is still needed to save a female Indonesian worker in Saudi Arabia from being executed, a senior official said on Sunday.

Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the government has so far raised about Rp 4 billion from various ministries to pay the financial compensation for Darsem binti Dawud Tawar, who was convicted in May 2009 by a Saudi court for murdering her employer.

“We have been working for Darsem and hopefully she will return to Indonesia soon,” he told reporters. “In the next couple of months, we will be struggling to get amnesty for her.”

Muhaimin said his office was continuing to coordinate its efforts to save Darsem with the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNPPTKI) and the Migrant Workers Placement Agency (PJTKI) in Saudi Arabia.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Friday that, in addition to state agencies, a number of donors in Saudi Arabia also pledged to help.

“We don’t need to worry since there are various sources [raising money]. We heard there have been contributions from donors in Saudi Arabia and that is good — progress is being made,” he said.

According to the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, Darsem, who comes from Subang in West Java, was convicted by a Riyadh court in May 2009 for murdering her Yemeni employer. The judge sentenced her to death by beheading, despite Darsem’s plea that she had killed her employer in self-defense because he had been attempting to rape her.

In January the victim’s family forgave Darsem and agreed to spare her, if she came up with Rp 4.3 billion in compensation — what is known in Arabic as diyat , or blood money.

The Indonesian government has been given six months to collect the sum, but is allowed to seek an extension.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Kusuma Habir said the legal proceedings had already entered the appeals stage, which meant there was a possibility the court would cancel or reduce the payoff.

Source: The Jakarta Globe

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Darsem binti Dawud from Subang, West Java, has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for murdering her employer. - Photo Source SCTV

Even if the sum is paid, Darsem binti Dawud Tawar would still be required to serve a prison term.

She is from Turungtum, Patimban, in Pusakanegara province.
She left her eight-months old son Safi'i, to become a housemaid through PT. Titian Hidup Langgeng in 2007.

In the same year, Darsem was reported to have killed her employer, an act of self-defense because her employer had tried to rape her.

She is not the first Indonesian migrant worker to face the death sentence in Saudi Arabia.

In January 2008, Yanti Sukardi was beheaded for killing her employer.
Yanti was said to have suffocated her employer with a pillow and then stolen her jewellery.

Beheading in Saudi Arabia is usually done by scimitar in a public square.
65 men and two women were executed in 2009, but the number fell to 26 men in 2010.

Human rights groups have repeatedly highlighted the abuse of maids in Saudi Arabia.
Alone and unprotected, a large number have complained of violent physical attacks and rapes by their employers.
But still, there are many more in the desert kingdom, as wages are very much  more than in their  own country.

Darsem's father hope that his daughter will return home alive, as Safi'i, now four-years old, still needs his mother.
He is in the care of her parents as the father had walk out of the family and remarried. 

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Another housemaid from Sukabumi, West Java who is facing execution is 26-year old Ny Eni binti Katma Mumu from Munjul Gegerbitung, in the province of Sukabumi.
She is guilty of killing her newborn upon delivery, in her employer's house.

She claimed to have strangled the baby, then threw the infant's body in a water container at the compound of her employer's house.
Her mother, despite disappointed with her daughter's act on the baby she had, with her husband, still hope that the Saudi government will grant pardon on her.

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Photo Source - Sun TV

Entin Kartini had worked as a domestic maid for two-years before, in Saudi Arabia.
She had sent money to her family in Sukabumi, West Java.

But her second time being a maid was not the family expected her to be.
The 30-year old mother of three, from Tegal Panjang in Cirenghas, Sukabumi, left for Saudi Arabia in May, 2010 with PT Putri Mandiri Abadi.

After spending 10-months in the kingdom, in early February 2011, her family was informed by the agency that brought her to Saudi, to bring her home from Jakarta.

She is mentally disturbed. 
She was traumatised, always in a panic state, after seeing her housemaid friend committed suicide in Saudi Arabia.
She was back in Indonesia since the last week of February, and was treated in Kramat Jati Hospital, Jakarta, before seeing a specialist in her hometown.

Her husband, Bubun, resigned to fate upon knowing the stress state of his wife
The family had tried all means to bring her back toher normal self.
Anger overwhelmed her, she often shouted at the top of her voice, that sometimes she looked as if being possessed.

Other times, although she look normal, but her speech is still not understood.

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The body of a 20-year old Indonesian maid is still  in the morgue since early December.  

Imas Masrikah, another migrant worker from Pasir Kandeul, in Sumaju village, of Nyalindung district was said to have died after 14-months working in Saudi Arabia. 
PT Buana Safira in Cililitan, East Jakarta, flew her to the kingdom, and she worked for the family of Fuad Abdul Aziz. 

Her family is still waiting for the body to return to Sukabumi, West Java. 

Een, Imas's elder sister, a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia too, is yet to confirm the cause of the death, either due to a fall while trying to escape from her employer, or abused to death.