HRW takes up workers’ cause in Saudi Arabia

Khalid HASAN

WASHINGTON: The killing of two Indonesian domestic workers by their employers in Saudi Arabia highlights the Saudi Government’s ongoing failure to hold employers accountable for abuses, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

The New York-based watchdog group said the employers’ brutal beatings also left two other Indonesian domestic workers critically injured. Saudi authorities have detained the employers.

“The brutal killings of these Indonesian domestic workers occurred in an atmosphere of impunity fostered by government inaction,” said Nisha Varia, senior researcher in HRW’s Women’s Rights Division.

“Not only do the authorities typically fail to investigate or prosecute abusive employers, the criminal justice system also obstructs abused workers from seeking redress.”

About two million women from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and other countries are employed as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

“They are routinely underpaid, overworked, confined to the workplace, or subject to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse,” HRW said.

Despite being victims of abuse themselves, many domestic workers are subject to counter-accusations, including theft, adultery or fornication. HRW said during visits to Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka in November and December, it interviewed Sri Lankan domestic workers sentenced to prison and whipping in Saudi Arabia after their employers had raped and impregnated them.

“Whether as victims or defendants, foreigners confront several serious problems in getting a fair investigation or trial in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system. Many migrant workers do not have access to interpreters, legal aid or basic information about their cases,” according to the group.

It also added that the Saudi government often takes months or years to disclose information about arrests and hospitalisations of their nationals to foreign missions.

Cases often drag on for years. Nour Miyati, an Indonesian domestic worker, sustained serious injuries and lost her fingers due to gangrene in 2005 after her employer abused her. She was then charged with making false accusations against her employer, and was sentenced to 79 lashes.

HRW urged the Saudi government to reform immigration sponsorship laws that seriously disadvantage workers by forcing them to obtain their employers’ permission to leave the country or transfer employment. A recent reform allows the Ministry of Labour to waive this requirement if the worker is not paid for three months but it is insufficient to resolve these problems.

Daily Times, Pakistan