MIDDLE EAST TIMES: DUBAI -- A Saudi family beat to death two Indonesian women workers in an attack that Human Rights Watch said Friday highlighted the government's failure to deal with employers who seriously abuse domestic staff.
"The brutal killings of these Indonesian domestic workers occurred in an atmosphere of impunity, fostered by government inaction," said Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the Women's Rights Division of the New York-based rights group.
"Not only do the authorities typically fail to investigate or prosecute abusive employers, the criminal justice system also obstructs abused workers from seeking redress."
The group said seven members of the Saudi family carried out the beatings, earlier this month, which also resulted in two other women being critically injured. They are now in intensive care in Riyadh.
The family accused the four of practising "black magic" on a teenage son.
Although the authorities have detained these employers, the rights group said many of the 2 million domestic workers in the kingdom are routinely underpaid, overworked, confined to the workplace, or subject to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse.
And those who complain often face countercharges, such as theft, adultery, or fornication in cases of rape or witchcraft.
It cited interviews it had with Sri Lankan women who had been sentenced to prison and whipping after their employers had raped and made them pregnant.
In another case, Nour Miyati, an Indonesian domestic worker, was seriously injuried and lost her fingers through gangrene, after her employer locked her up, physically and verbally abused her, and deprived her of food.
She then faced a countercharge of making false accusations against him and was sentenced to 79 lashes. A court subsequently overturned that conviction and sentence, but she still awaits a final monetary settlement from her employer, and the ability to return home to Indonesia after her ordeal.
Human Rights Watch said the Saudi government often took months or years to tell foreign missions if their nationals had been arrested, preventing them from giving badly-needed help, such as interpreters.
Despite this, it said the Indonesian embassy alone currently has 300 women in its shelter, mainly domestic workers complaining of abuse by employers and recruitment agents. In July, the shelter housed 500 women. [Source; Saudi family killed domestic workers says rights group]
Mark Alexander
