London slavery: Family of Malaysian woman held as slave in London comes forward

PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian family has spoken to the English press claiming to be related to the Malaysian woman who was saved from alleged slavery in Lambert recently.

The Daily Telegraph spoke to retired teacher Kamar Mautum who claims to be the sister of the 69-year-old victim, whom Kamar said disappeared from the family’s lives after joining a Maoist sect.

Kamar names the victim as her sister Aishah, who she says was a bright student who studied in an elite school here before winning a Commonwealth scholarship, which brought her to London in the late 1960s.

Screenshot of The Telegraph of Kamar Mautum.

Kamar added that Aishah moved to Briton with her fiancé Omar Munir in 1968.

Aishah and her fiancé became a part of an organisation called Malaysian and Singaporean Students Forum (Mass), believed to be one of the more extreme Maoist groups in London.

After coming under the influence of Aravindan Balakrishnan (better known as Comrade Bala) and his partner Chanda, she gave up her relationship, as well as her plans to build a career and family.

Aishah eventually became so involved in the group that she ceased contact with her family, who were against her involvement with the left-wing group.

It was reported that Kamar wishes to meet her sister at least once before either of them dies.

Pensioner Guilty Of Raping Trafficked Girl

A pensioner who trafficked a deaf and mute girl into the UK, using her to milk the benefits system, has been found guilty of repeatedly raping her.

Ilyas Ashar, 84, sexually abused his vulnerable victim again and again, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Two female jurors wept as guilty verdicts were delivered on 13 counts of rape.
The girl, from Pakistan, who is profoundly deaf and cannot speak, was beaten and slapped and forced to work for Ashar and his family as a domestic servant.
While Ashar used his victim to satisfy his sexual desires, the girl was also used to steal more than £30,000 in benefits.
The youngster was even taught enough sign language by the family so she could agree to the benefit money being handed over to the Ashars.

Tallat Ashar has been found guilty of trafficking and benefit fraud

She was first brought into the UK in June 2000 when aged around 10, though her exact age is not known.
For almost a decade the girl had to work and sleep in the cellar at the family's substantial home in Cromwell Road in the Eccles area of Salford.
Ashar had been convicted at an earlier trial of two counts of trafficking a person into the UK for exploitation, two counts of furnishing false information to obtain a benefit and one of permitting furnishing of false information to obtain a benefit.
His wife, Tallat Ashar, 68, was found guilty of two counts of trafficking a person into the UK for exploitation and four counts of furnishing false information to obtain a benefit.
His daughter, Faaiza Ashar, 46, was found guilty at an earlier trial of two counts of furnishing false information to obtain a benefit and one count of permitting furnishing of false information to obtain a benefit.
All three were convicted at the earlier trial, where the jury was unable to reach verdicts on the allegations of rape, so Ashar was re-tried.
Reporting on the second trial was banned until the verdicts on the rape charges were in.
Jurors were not told about the guilty verdicts at the earlier trial, where the court heard the girl was made to cook, clean, do the washing and ironing for the Ashars, and clean the houses and cars of their family and friends.
She also spent her days in the cellar packing football shirts, clothes and mobile phone covers.
The girl had no family or friends in the UK and had never been to school in Pakistan or Britain.
She could not read or write and the only people she knew in Britain were the Ashars, who told her both her parents were dead.
She was, however, taught to write her signature - so her name could be used to claim benefits.
Judge Peter Lakin excused the panel of six men and six women of sitting as jurors again for 10 years and thanked them for their public duty in what he described as a "difficult" case.
Ashar's lawyer asked for bail to be continued, but the judge refused.
He was remanded into custody to be sentenced next week along with his wife and daughter, who sat in the public gallery grim-faced.
Salford divisional commander Chief Superintendent Mary Doyle, said: "This was a dreadful case where the girl endured years of domestic exploitation at the hands of the Ashar family.
"They have exploited her disability and made it appear to the authorities that she was responsible for their own fraudulent behaviour. She was essentially kept in domestic servitude.
"What is remarkable - and the most important aspect of this unusual case - is that the victim has emerged a confident, well-adjusted and determined young woman.
"At no stage have the defendants shown any remorse, or admitted to what they did to a girl, who was only as young as 10 years old when this began."

Analysis: How to tackle slavery in Asia

A global disgrace

It isn't going to be easy by any means
There was a time when slavery was synonymous with shackles, whips, cramped ships and white plantation owners. Today the face of bonded labor and forced migration is a lot more disparate. In Asia, it could be the teenage bride from Myanmar, smuggled across the border by a Chinese wedding broker; the 29-year-old Cambodian whose passport was confiscated and is forced to work on a Thai fishing boat; or a 10-year-old Bangladeshi boy born into bonded labor.
Whatever it looks like, there's no doubt slavery in its contemporary manifestation not only exists, but thrives in every continent and almost every country.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), an estimated 21 million men, women and children are in forced labor around the world. Of those, 90 percent are in the private economy, exploited by individuals or enterprises. Most (68 percent) are forced to do manual labor in manufacturing, construction or agriculture, or as domestic workers. Around 22 percent work in the commercial sex industry.
Asian problem
Asia has by far the biggest share of slavery. The ILO estimates 11.7 million - 56 percent of those in bonded or forced labor - are in the Asia-Pacific region. By way of comparison, the next worst region is Africa, with 18 percent. The numbers are shocking, but they're not new, experts note.
In the last few decades the move to eradicate slavery has shifted into public consciousness and helped drive parts of the global development agenda. Countries where the problem is most prevalent have signed international agreements promising to work with humanitarian agencies and activists to tackle the issue.
International criminal networks responsible for trafficking people are better monitored and more frequently intercepted now than in the past, while corporations and consumers are more aware of the potential impact of encouraging cheap abusive labor, thanks in part to several high profile investigations in the international media.
For many governmental agencies and crime watchdogs working to eradicate slavery, there's genuine reason to be optimistic. Yet there's also a feeling among activists and those on the ground with firsthand experience of the trauma and abuse trafficked and enslaved people experience every day that still more could be done.
Dangerous perception
"There is a dangerous perception in the development community that if we address common issues [like poverty] you'll automatically eradicate slavery," Adrian McQuade, director of the London-based organization, Anti-Slavery International, told IRIN.
The group has for a long time lobbied governments and put pressure on global institutions and enterprises to end slavery, but McQuade says their focus has increasingly shifted to the international development community. He says not only are they failing to do enough to end modern slavery, they could also actually be making the problem worse.
"Unless you consistently address the issue of excluded groups, not just on grounds of gender but ethnic and religious groups too, then there is a very real risk that an intervention by a development agency will worsen the position of the excluded group, leaving them more vulnerable to exploitation and slavery," he said.
Research has consistently shown that those most vulnerable to being trafficked or forced to work under threat of punishment are almost always from marginal communities that are often left out of mainstream development programs or are last to benefit from them, McQuade noted.
While gender discrimination has for a long time been a priority in the humanitarian world, other prejudices against racial or religious minorities are dealt with far less efficiently. In many cases it is easier for development agencies to work with, or distribute their help through, majority communities or dominant family groups, who use their position of influence to politically and culturally exclude others. "If every development project was forced to consider what will be the impact of this on slavery, we'd begin to deal with this issue in a more holistic way," McQuade said.
In Asia the problem is often particularly acute in border areas or along migration corridors where several communities compete for resources and are vying for the attention of development groups.
Lisa Rende Taylor is an anthropologist and independent expert on trafficking and bonded labor patterns in Southeast Asia, who until recently worked for the UN Inter-agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP). In her role as chief technical advisor she oversaw studies on the economics of trafficking women for sex work in Thailand, and on children sold by their parents to work as beggars.
She left UNIAP partly because she felt frustrated that more resources were not being put into supporting frontline workers in areas where trafficking happens. "At a top level there are people who want to do their job, there are regional co-ordination meetings and country workshops… but when you go onto the ground and meet actual people running reception centers or safe houses there are barely resources getting to these people."
Smarter programming
Like McQuade, Rende Taylor says there's a misconception that general poverty relief will deal with the issue of slavery and trafficking, and backs a much more targeted development approach.
"Programming could be a lot smarter," she says, citing an example in northern Thailand, where her research showed that girls trafficked into the commercial sex industry were easily the most educated in their villages.
Most were exploited because of high expectations by their families for a return on their education investment. The girls felt they had to provide and so went to Bangkok, the capital, where they fell into abusive sex or domestic work.
The intervention to stop trafficking in this area of northern Thailand was setting up mushroom farms to give poor families work. The girls being trafficked had no interest in working on the farms and were unlikely to benefit from the program. Rende Taylor says a better understanding of the reasons people are trafficked is not hard to come by, but research of this kind is still not being prioritized by governments and the UN.
Many frontline NGOs agree. Seri Thongmak is executive director of the Pattanarak Foundation, which helps migrant workers from Myanmar trapped in forced labor in Thailand. He commends the work done at a high level to tighten anti-slavery legislation, but says what's really needed is more funds to help his charity and others educate vulnerable communities about the reality of working abroad, and the risks of forced labor.
"Protection is not making a billboard, it is interacting with the community," he says. "It is difficult to access financial support to work on education and protection [because] a lot of anti-human trafficking projects focus on international conferences and emergency relief."
Many in the UN agree more could be done to improve funding at grassroots level, but argue this will only be effective if there is a joined-up approach to catching and prosecuting those benefiting from cheap or free labor.
"Capitalized economies have turned humans into walking commodities, and wherever you find a need for cheap labor or a demand for increased supply, you will find people being exploited," said Martin Reeve, regional advisor on human trafficking in Asia at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Before working on anti-trafficking in Asia, Reeve worked in the British police force and he says many of the problems developing countries have in implementing anti-slavery legislation exist in the developed world too.
"No jurisdiction in the world could honestly say they have ‘got it [under control'] in terms of human trafficking," he said.
More than one approach
Among other aspects, UNODC focuses on helping to build the capacity of law enforcement agencies, and to move from reactive to intelligence-led policing. This strengthens the argument that research, both in the anthropological sense and the criminal investigation sense, will improve efficiency and effectiveness.
"Intelligence-led policing allows us to peel back the layers of the onion to get to the very heart of the issue and prosecute the big guys - not just the ones who are visible," Reeve says.
He advises that caution needs to be exercised in the way anti-slavery organizations and activists publicize their activity. Campaign language and imagery is often very emotive and designed to shock people into action, but the issue is almost always more complicated than activists make it, and there's a danger over-simplification or exaggerating the numbers or facts could lead to apathy.
"When the issue isn't dealt with soberly you run the risk of de-sensitizing people," Reeve says. "We need to use numbers and language with care, and make sure people understand there isn't just one approach or solution."
(IRIN is a service of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This report does not necessarily reflect the UN's views)

Ethiopia woman lived modern day slavery at hands of Dubai couple

Ethiopia woman lived modern day slavery at hands of Dubai couple.

ADDIS ABABA: Women’s rights groups in France successfully rescued an Ethiopian woman who had been living in modern day slavery by a Dubai couple vacationing in Paris, Trust Law reported.

According to the Committee Against Modern Slavery and the Women’s Association United, the woman was rescued after hotel workers contacted the two groups, who in turn alerted French police of the situation facing the young woman.

According to women’s groups in Ethiopia, who spoke to Bikyamasr.com of the woman’s situation, she faced physical and verbal abuse by the Dubai couple at the Paris hotel.

“After this, police investigated and found gross violations at the hands of the couple and have removed the woman from the situation, which can be summed up as slavery,” a women’s group representative confirmed to Bikyamasr.com on Saturday in Addis Ababa.

According to a report in the Paris daily newspaper Liberation, the incident that sparked the police investigation took place in mid-July, “when the family— parents, eight children and the Ethiopian maid — had checked into the Hotel Concorde Opera for an extended stay,” Trust Law reported.

The 24-year-old domestic worker told an Ethiopian employee in the hotel that she wanted to get away from the family, “who had not paid her for the 18 months since she worked for them and had confiscated her passport.”

Trust Law reported: “According to the police report viewed by Liberation, the young woman exhibited bruises on her forearms and told police a story that is not uncommon in the world of modern slavery. She said that after the death of her mother, an uncle took her to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa where he made her sign up with an employment agency.”

She said one child routinely threatened her that if the household work was poorly done, “You will never return to Ethiopia. I’ll cut your throat.”

The incident highlights why the Ethiopian government has banned women from heading to the Gulf to work as domestic workers as sexual abuse, violence and situations like the one uncovered in France show.

The Al Jazeera slavery debate

Watch our panel of experts discuss modern-day slavery in a televised debate moderated by Rageh Omaar.

Why, hundreds of years after it was legally abolished, does slavery persist? The last episode of Slavery: A 21st Century Evil is a televised debate in which this question, among others, was posed to a panel of those who direct or seek to influence government policies on slavery across the world.

The debate was held at Decatur House on Washington's Lafayette Square - the site of the only remaining physical evidence that African Americans were once held in bondage within sight of the White House - as an iconic venue for the debate on a trade that refuses to die.

Moderator Rageh Omaar was joined by: Luis C d'Baca from the US State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; Kevin Bales, the president of Free the Slaves; David Batstone, the president of Not for Sale; and Joy Ezeilo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons.

In Cambodia, anti-slavery reforms questioned

By David Ariosto, CNN,

Cambodia, long suspected of being fertile ground for human traffickers, has drawn recent attention after reports of sexual abuse and widespread mistreatment prompted government actions to improve the plight of its young women and girls.

Considered a modern-day form of slavery, human trafficking involves the illegal trade of people and commonly includes sexual exploitation and forced labor.


In Cambodia, CNN uncovered stories of suspected abuse; ranging from girls as young as 4 years old being sold for sex - an industry thought to be bolstered by foreign tourists - to young women trapped in debt-bondage, having being lured to neighboring Malaysia for work.

In an effort to unravel a phenomenon that human rights groups say still plagues southeast Asia and the broader region, the CNN Freedom Project highlighted Cambodia because of both its reputation and a recent pledge to better the situation.

But whether recent reforms have since worked to stem the alleged abuses remains a subject of debate.

Domestic labor in Malaysia

Drawn by the prospect of a better life and the promise of more money, many young Cambodian maids working in Malaysia said they were recruited to go there by labor agencies, now only to find themselves unable to leave.

The women - often subject to poor treatment in prison-like facilities - forfeit their passports and are commonly left in a situation tantamount to indentured servitude, said Manfred Hornung, a legal adviser for the Cambodian Rights Group, Licadho.

On October 15, however, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a measure into law banning the practice of sending domestic workers to Malaysia, perhaps in response to mounting criticism.

The ban was enacted just days after a report by CNN's Dan Rivers examined a recruitment agency in the Cambodian capital.

The story "that aired on CNN has actually awakened the country up the whole country on this human trafficking issue again," said Cambodian parliament member Mu Sochua. "I have to say that his piece is just one little part of the whole problem, which is much worse."

She said the report prompted her to further petition the country's leadership to take action.
But only weeks later, Sochua told CNN that labor recruitment agencies in her country were still sending domestic workers to Malaysia, adding that many government officials either own or have close ties to the companies.

The country's ministries of labor and interior "are not taking any action," she said, noting that "many officials and familial members of some ministers actually own these dubious agencies."

Sochua did not identify the officials, ministers or companies to which she was referring and CNN cannot independently confirm her claim.

But a government spokesman called the practice of sending labor abroad "a learning process."
"We are finding out why it has happened and why it is happening," said Phay Siphan, a spokesperson for the country's Council of Ministers.

Recruitment agencies, meanwhile, forge identification papers in an effort to recruit children, charge "excessive recruitment fees" and mislead workers about potential opportunities, according to recent a Human Rights Watch report.

Up to 50,000 Cambodian women have migrated to Malaysia since 2008, the report said.

And yet just three days after the domestic worker ban was signed into law, 25 Cambodian maids - wearing shirts emblazoned with name of a recruiting agency - checked in for an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, according to Licadho.

CNN cannot independently confirm that account.

"It is a heartbreaking story," said Sochua. "I constantly meet with many parents who come to tell me that they don't know where their girls are, they simply disappeared and lost contacts with families after girls left to Malaysia."

Sex slavery

Often accused of being both a source of and destination for human sex trafficking, CNN explored allegations of abuse affecting young girls in Cambodia - notably in a village outside the capital of Phnom Penh.

The village, Svay Pak, appears to have a disturbing reputation as a place where little girls are openly sold for sex to foreign tourists.

One of the girls - who CNN is not naming to protect the identity of the victim - says she was forced to work in a brothel before she could read.

"I was about 5 or 6 years old," the girl said. "The first man said to me, 'I want to have sex with you.' At the time I didn't know what to do. No one could help me."

Dozens of girls in her neighborhood told CNN that they've had similar experiences.

Sex workers elsewhere in the country are also subject to other forms of sexual violence, according to Human Rights Watch.

Last year, the group released a report that detailed widespread allegations of 90 female and transgender sex workers that said police "had beaten them with their fists, sticks, and electronic shock batons."

"Several said officers raped them while they were in police detention," the report said. "Every single sex worker we spoke with said the police demanded bribes or stole money from them. Some officers demanded sex."

Two years earlier, the country had passed a law meant to protect sex workers. But rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, say there is "little evidence that this has happened, or that prosecutions for trafficking have been pursued.

Government officials decline to comment on those allegations.

Timeline

As the CNN Freedom Project continues to examine the effects and root causes of human trafficking, the following timeline reflects key aspects of coverage and events around the region.

October 3-5, 2011: CNN airs a three-part series that examines a recruiting agency, with alleged ties to the Cambodian government, suspected of trafficking maids to Malaysia. Just before the series airs, the young woman featured in the story begins receiving compensation, she says, but is still unable to leave the factory – her passport confiscated – until her "debt" is paid off. Read more of the report by CNN correspondent Dan Rivers 

October 15, 2011: Cambodia's prime minister signs an order suspending the recruitment, training and sending of Cambodian domestic workers to Malaysia. Weeks later an opposition lawmaker says labor recruitment agencies are still sending domestic workers to Malaysia, adding that many government officials either own or have close ties to the companies. CNN cannot independently confirm that account and government officials say stopping the practice is "a learning process."

October 17, 2011: Malaysian Foreign Minister pledges to apologize to Cambodia if allegations of abuse of Cambodian workers in Malaysia are proved to be true.

October 22-23, 2011: CNN airs a two-part documentary called "Not My Life" that focuses on Cambodian brothels, specifically an area not far from the capital, where young girls are prostituted to visiting tourists.

October 24, 2011: CNN correspondent Sara Sidner reports from Cambodiagoogle. as a follow-up to what was revealed in "Not My Life." She files a story that focuses on a young woman who talks about how she endured repeated rapes from the time she was 5e years old. Shortly after the story airs, Cambodian authorities contact Don Brewster who runs the aid group featured in "Not My Life" to say they would act and make arrests. Brewster says he's been "yelling from the roof tops" for the past two years and it's not until CNN airs the story that suddenly there is action.

October 28, 2011: An article in the Cambodia Daily - an English-language daily newspaper - highlights government ties to recruiting agencies, including the one featured in Rivers' report.

October 31, 2011: Human Rights Watch publishes a report based on interviews with migrant domestic workers, government officials, non-governmental organizations, and recruitment agencies that highlight alleged abuses of women and girls in Cambodia and Malaysia, including allegations of forced confinement, heavy debt burdens and rape.

November 6, 2011: Journalist Nick Kristof accompanies a police raid at a brothel in Cambodia and posts message on the social networking site Twitter about how the army showed up and ordered police to cancel the raid as it was taking place. CNN cannot independently confirm that account, and the government has declined to comment.

Slaves freed after CNN documentary

By Fred Pleitgen and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, CNN

(CNN) - Hundreds of African refugees have been released from captivity in the Sinai Peninsula and allowed to cross from Egypt into Israel, shortly after a CNN documentary aired detailing the horrendous conditions the migrants face.

The report, "Death in the Desert," which was first broadcast on CNN International on November 5, showed evidence that African refugees, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, were being held captive by Bedouin human traffickers in Sinai, who try to extort massive sums of money from the refugees’ families for their release.

While in captivity the refugees are enslaved, many of the women raped and some even killed. The CNN crew even found evidence that some victims had organs extracted, a practice known as organ harvesting, and were later found dead in the desert.

Shortly after the documentary aired, more than 600 African refugees were released in Sinai, says Hamdi al Azzazy, an activist for the New Generation Foundation for Human Rights who has worked for years in the region, fighting to improve the plight of the African refugees.

His account was backed up by a press release from the EveryOne Group, an Italian non-governmental organization, which has also been raising public awareness about the refugees.

It said that after the CNN documentary aired "many chief-traffickers were afraid of being pursued by the authorities and on Wednesday, November 9th, 2011 decided to release most of the groups of refugees they were holding prisoner."

The Sinai Desert is a vast and lawless area where the Egyptian state has virtually no presence and it is nearly impossible to fully verify the accounts.

CNN has contacted a chief of the Sawarka Bedouin tribe. Some rogue members of this tribe have been implicated in the imprisonment of African refugees and in the organ harvesting scheme.

The chief, who has asked not to be named said: "I heard the Sawarka's members involved in this dirty business released more than 600 Africans without them having to pay the ransoms and sent them to the Israeli border due to pressure from the intelligence service, including hundreds who were freed from the house of the assassinated dealer in Nekhel. He has been selling their organs and they found lots of weapons."

EveryOne Group says the alleged trafficker in people and human organs - known as "The Sultan" - was killed in a shootout with some Bedouins of another tribe, who were attempting to free a group of Eritrean refugees.

An Egyptian general, who asked not to be named, told CNN that Egypt's national security agencies were "tracking the rings of organized criminals involved in human trafficking but remain perplexed regarding who exactly is harvesting the organs and where they have been sold."

He said the investigation included "both the Egyptian intelligence and the National Security apparatus because it involves several countries and is not just an internal issue."

The UNHCR, which attempts to keep track of refugees crossing from Egypt to Israel, has confirmed that about 650 refugees have recently crossed the border.

Peter Deck, the Senior Protection Officer for the UNHCR in Tel Aviv, said it was impossible to tell why so many refugees were suddenly crossing the border or what role CNN's Freedom Project program may have played in people getting released from Bedouin detention camps, but he added that November was on track to becoming a record for the most crossings by refugees from Egypt to Israel.

He said that aside from the sheer numbers, the conditions had also changed. Many of those who crossed into Israel had stayed in Sinai for about a week, whereas usually the African refugees are held in Bedouin camps for months, and that most had paid substantially less to be allowed to pass then is normally the case.

Another change he noted was: "We didn’t have any refugees complain of severe physical abuse or violence… something seems to be different in those Bedouin camps."

The American University in Cairo is hosting a conference this weekend at which a delegation from The International Criminal Court will address human trafficking through Africa, Sinai, and Israel.

Slavery: A 21st Century Evil - Bridal slaves

Charcoal slaves

Poverty-stricken men from the north of Brazil are often lured to remote camps where they are used as slave labour.

Brazil, once the world's largest importer of slaves from Africa, has taken the lead in fighting 21st century slavery with a raft of innovative laws aimed at stamping it out.

However, slave labour continues to thrive in the South American country - especially in the age-old practice of charcoal burning. The dirty and dangerous business is relied on by many international companies as one of the early stages in the manufacturing of pig iron.

Brazilian pig iron is shipped to some of the world's biggest companies, including household name car manufacturers - who use it to forge steel.

But the charcoal burning stage is sometimes done by forced labourers, including men from the poverty-stricken north of Brazil who are lured with false promises to remote camps.

They are forced into working and living in appalling conditions, and often tricked into amassing massive debts that are impossible to meet in order to pay for their accommodation and even work equipment.

Bonded slaves a 21st Century Evil

Indonesian maid escapes execution in Saudi Arabia

Clarification: This story has been updated to make it clear that the Indonesian government paid the compensation necessary to secure the maid's release, rather than supporters. 
 
(CNN) -- Just three weeks ago, Darsem binti Dawud Tawar was facing execution by beheading in Saudi Arabia for murder, which she claims was an act of self-defense. Now, finally back home in Indonesia, she is a free woman -- after the Indonesian government paid more than $500,000 in "blood money."

Holding her young son tightly, as she faced the glare of the media, Darsem was reunited with her family on Wednesday at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry in Jakarta. She first left her West Java hometown for a job as a maid in the Middle East in 2006, when her son was just a baby.

Darsem's pardon followed the recent beheading of another Indonesian maid convicted of murdering her employer in Saudi Arabia.

In May 2009, a Riyadh court sentenced Darsem to death for murdering a relative of her Yemeni employer in Saudi Arabia. She claimed she acted in self-defense, after he allegedly tried to rape her.

Earlier this year, the dead man's family agreed to pardon her so long as she paid them compensation, known as diyat or "blood money."

The Indonesian government offered to pay the required compensation of 2 million riyals ($533,000).
Indonesia's Foreign Ministry says the diyat was paid on June 25 to the family through the courts. A day later, Riyadh's Vice Governor Prince Satham Abdulazis signed Darsem's release papers, and she was able to return to Indonesia on Wednesday.

Another Indonesian maid working in Saudi Arabia, Ruyati binti Sapubi, was executed on June 16. Her beheading caused public outrage in Indonesia and a diplomatic protest when Saudi Arabian authorities failed to inform Indonesia about the date of her execution.

The Indonesian government announced a full moratorium on sending workers to the Gulf kingdom, demanding an agreement be first signed to ensure the protection of workers' rights.

Indonesia stops sending workers to Saudi Arabia

It was to take effect on August 1 but a month before that, Saudi Arabia announced its own ban, halting the issuance of visas to domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines.

Migrant workers' rights groups have long demanded better working conditions and protection for more than a million Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia.

Indonesian migrant worker endured years of abuse

Indonesian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Michael Tene said the two sides held meetings in Saudi Arabia on July 11 and 12 on this issue.

While talks are at an early stage, Tene said Indonesia is hopeful a memorandum of understanding could be signed this year with stipulations for improved rights and conditions for workers, enabling them to again work in Saudi Arabia.

Tene also said government efforts continue to ensure that all legal avenues are exhausted and assistance is given to all other Indonesians on death row, not only in Saudi Arabia, but also in other countries.

After Ruyati's execution, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono created a special task force from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and also Manpower and Law and Human Rights to focus on protecting Indonesian migrant workers. On Thursday, Yudhoyono announced that a government team, part of the task force, had been dispatched to Saudi Arabia.

Allegations Saudi Ambassador to Germany Enslaved Indonesian Maid

The Jakarta Globe 

A German human rights group has publicly accused a Saudi diplomat in Berlin of treating the Indonesian maid he employed as a slave.

Her struggle is now the focus of an attempt to challenge diplomatic immunity in Germany and could place further pressures on the already strained relationship between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

Dewi Ratnasari, the 30-year-old maid, began working for the Saudi diplomat and his family in April of 2009. For the next year and a half, she worked 18-hour days, seven days a week and never received her monthly wage of 750 euros, the German Institute for Human Rights reported.

She told police she was “humiliated like a serf,” and that she was punched and regularly beaten with a stick by everyone in the diplomat’s family, including the five-year-old son.

The diplomat had confiscated her passport and Dewi (a pseudonym) spoke no German, so she had few options but to remain and work. But in October of 2010 she escaped and sought help from Ban Ying, a Berlin-based human rights association assisting migrant women from Southeast Asia, and the GIHR.

“The worst part is they never called her by her name, but by the Arabic word for ‘shit,’” Ban Ying’s Nivedita Prasad told Deutsche Welle.

Because of diplomatic immunity, which shields embassy employees from criminal prosecution and most civil suits, Dewi had no way to hold her employer accountable.

According to a GIHR report released this week, that protection makes exploitation widespread. Ban Ying said they see 5 to 10 cases of diplomatic domestic staff abuse in Berlin each year.

Earlier this month, Berlin’s Labor Court rejected her lawsuit, a criminal complaint of human trafficking and a claim on 70,000 euros in back wages, overtime, and compensation for suffering.

The Saudi diplomat’s lawyer, Philipp von Berg, denied the allegations, which he said could only be tried in Saudi Arabia.

The GIHR and Hamburg lawyer Klaus Berlsmann are now filing an appeal that would give exploited employees like Dewi, who has since returned to Indonesia, legal recourse by overturning diplomatic immunity in cases of human rights violations.

“Human rights are, also from the perspective of international law, a higher good than diplomatic immunity,” Berlsmann told the Daily Mail.

He is optimistic that the German higher court will follow the model set in France earlier this year, where the French government paid a woman from Oman employed by a UNESCO diplomat the 33,380 euros in back pay that France’s highest administrative court awarded.

It may take up to six months for the German higher court to issue a ruling on Dewi’s case, and the German Foreign Ministry told Deutsche Presse-Agenteur it is seeking a solution in the meantime.

Berjaya: We’re not slave masters

Berjaya denies that it is ill-treating its workers in the Nigel Gardner estate and vows to look into their grouses.

KUALA LUMPUR: Conglomerate Berjaya Group has denied ill-treating and subjecting its workers in the Nigel Gardner estate in Hulu Selangor to slave-like conditions.

During a meeting with FMT at the Berjaya headquarters here yesterday, the group’s general manager Sandy Tham held a slideshow presentation on the facilities at the estate.

She also provided documents to prove that the management was transparent and adhered to stipulated regulations.

Expressing shock over the FMT report last weekend which stated that the workers were living in squalid conditions, she said: “We are a big corporation, and we don’t do such things.”

The presentation showcased how Berjaya, owned by tycoon Vincent Tan, had carried out upgrading works at the estate, from the laying of new roads to providing cleaner water for its residents.

Apart from this, Tham said, Berjaya had always considered the welfare of its workers and their children, by providing mobile clinic services, transport, donations to the temples and schools as well as refreshments for the pupils such as Milo and biscuits.

“The news report gave the impression that we are exploiting our workers,” she said.

Based on the slides presented, the upgrading works at the estate started in 2009, which concidentally was the same year that the Hulu Selangor by-election was held.

Quizzed on why Berjaya, which owned the estate for 13 years, had chosen to start numerous projects that year, Tham appeared stumped.

However, another Berjaya official quickly added: “We became more focused then… prior to that, we were carrying out upkeeping work from time to time.”

In the Hulu Selangor by-election, Barisan Nasional’s P Kamalanathan had defeated PKR’s former strongman Zaid Ibrahim to clinch the parliamentary seat.

Winning the seat, which fell to PKR in the 2008 general election, was considered vital for BN and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Berjaya’s Tan had always been considered a BN-friendly businessman and was often accused of being a crony of the government and having strong political influence.

‘Work without leave for better pay’

On the meagre wages drawn by the workers, Tham said this depended on the quantity of leave taken.
“If they work 26 days straight, they can earn a gross pay with incentives given for attendance amounting to more than RM700 (before deductions)… this is a comfortable income,” she added.

As for the condition of the houses and complaints of the outdoor bathroom doors not being fixed, Tham said repair works were being done in stages.

She also pointed out that some of the residents carried out illegal extensions and this proved to be a problem for the management.

“Apart from this, another problem is the rearing of cows and goats. We don’t mind if it is for personal consumption, but they rear the livestock to be sold for a profit,” she said.

On houses being infested with insects and incidents of snakes slithering into the living quarters, Tham said this could be related to personal hygiene.

“It is up to the workers to keep their houses clean and prevent such things,” she added.

Tham also vowed to look into the workers’ grouses concerning the estate manager, whom the latter accused of numerous misdeeds.

Berjaya would also look into the claim that the sundry shop in the estate sold items at inflated prices and that peddlers were barred from entering Nigel Gardner.

“We will definitely look into their complaints and fix the problems,” Tham said.
After visiting the estate last Saturday, MIC publicity and communication chief S Vell Paari said that he was appalled by what he had seen, and planned to relocate the residents.

Vell Paari said the plan was non-political and invited representatives from Pakatan Rakyat and NGOs to join in the effort.

Tomorrow, the MIC leader would be visiting the estate again to meet the residents to gather their feedback.