Horror life of abused foreign maids revealed

Horror life of abused foreign= maids revealed

By Puangchumpoo Prasert
The Nation
Published on February 26, 2009

An increasing number of migrant house servants are suffering abuse from their employers including having to work slave-like ho= urs and physical assaults, the Foundation For Women (FFW) revealed yesterday.

At a seminar on migrant house servants at Bangkok's Asia Hotel yesterday, Dararai Ruksasiripong, a = FFW Anti-Trafficking Project Officer, said the group and Immigration Police had rescued 348 female and child workers last year. Most were Laotians, followe= d by Burmese and Cambodians.

Some 63 of the rescued workers were victims of human trafficking, she said, with 37 of them working as house maids. Employers had detained 28 of the maids and cut all communication to their families, while= 21 claimed they never got paid, 14 alleged they had been assaulted by employers including some maids who allegedly went blind.

Four women alleged they were sexually abused by their bosses, she said. All of these maids also had to work more than 12 hours a day in a slave-like manner, she added.

"These children and women had barel= y no chance to go outside the houses and they got no welfare besides a place to sleep and one to two meals a day," Daranai= said.

"Some were forced to live on rice and fish sauce or pet food. If they upset the bosses or didn't understand orders, they would be assaulted, sold to others or dumped somewhere.

"Some kids suffered such abuse that they developed ment= al illness thus employers let them go and someone sent them to a mental hospit= al. Doctors diagnosed them as traumatised patients = before they were handed to the Immigration Bureau," she said.

Dararai said most abusive employers were in Bang= kok but about 20 cases could not be brought to prosecution. She expressed conce= rn that the economic downturn would increase the violence that migrant maids endured if employers took out their stress on them.

Most maids came from southern Laos and paid brokers Bt2,000 up to Bt5,000 for their jobs, while those from Burma, Karen or Mon states paid brokers Bt14,000 up to Bt17,000 f= or jobs in Thailand.

These women often lacked evidence to prove assaults or sexual harassment, or had little information about their employers, while many were too scared to file complaints because they were "illegal aliens".=

Daranai urged that = the Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence Act should be amended to cover foreign maids.

However, immigration police chief Lt-General Chatchawal Suksomjit said the act did not include domestic workers as family members so workers' cases had to be dealt with under the criminal code for assaults, the trafficking law for slavery, or the child protection bill.

He urged members of the public to alert police if they see servants or family members abused, saying police would take action and deci= de which laws could be applied.