MALAYSIA: Domestic Worker’s Escape Puts Spotlight on Abuses

By Baradan Kuppusamy Reprint | | Print |

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 21 2007 (IPS) - A dramatic escape by an Indonesian domestic worker from her abusive employer has sparked a national outcry after millions of Malaysians watched the incident live on television last week.

The death-defying escape of 33-year-old Ceriyati Dapin, from West Java, on Jun. 20 has again focused attention on the plight of foreign domestic workers whose living and working conditions, human rights activists say, are little better than modern-day slavery.

One positive outcome, officials said, is that Malaysia, which officially employs 480,000 foreign domestic workers, might bar employers who abuse their helpers from ever hiring domestic workers in the future.

Dapin’s escape is a story in itself.

After months of abuse and of desperation, Dapin’s used a rope fashioned out of used clothes tied together to climb out of the window of the 15th-storey condominium of her employer in the capital.

However, she only managed to lower herself onto a 12th-floor ledge, before fear overtook her. Perched there, she looked death in the eye until passersby raised the Fire and Rescue Department, whose officers grabbed Dapin’s and brought her down safely.

The escape, said opposition lawmakers, is a dramatic statement of despair since domestic workers were now risking death to escape abuses.

“It is a truly shocking incident,’ said opposition lawmaker Teresa Kok, whose raised migrant issues in parliament. “The torture and abuse must have been so unbearable that Dapin was willing to risk certain death to escape her employer.”

“It is a miracle she is alive,” Kok told IPS in an interview. “We must all ask ourselves how we have allowed abuse of our fellow humans to reach this stage,” she said, urging the government to do a complete review of all rules and regulations covering the employment of foreign domestic workers.

She echoed fears among human rights organisations that after an initial outcry over this latest high-profile case, it will be “business as usual”.

After her rescue, Dapin was warded in a hospital and is now housed in a special but overcrowded hostel for abused domestic workers that is managed by the Indonesian government in its embassy grounds.

According to local newspapers, Dapin is underweight and had assault marks on her face, neck and back. Her employer has also been arrested and has admitted to abusing the maid, local reports said.

“We have taken Ceriyati for a medical check-up. She is badly bruised and has lost 10 kilogrammes in weight since she arrived in Malaysia,” said an Indonesian embassy spokesman.

Dapin told police she was punched, strangled and hit with objects by her employer soon after starting work in January.

But Dapin’s case is just one in a long string of abuses. The Indonesian embassy here handled about 1,200 such cases in 2006.

“It is a recurring phenomenon and more tough action is needed all round to curb abuse,” said acting Indonesian ambassador Abdulrahman Facir. “The percentage is small compared to the size of the Indonesian maid workforce here.”

“Nevertheless, we act on every case,” he said, adding the embassy also provides legal and other support when the case comes for trial.

“We will definitely act against employers who acted inhumanly as their actions mar the image of other employers and the country,” a Malaysian government spokesman said. “We will start blacklisting abusive employers immediately while waiting for the final decision from the government on a lifetime ban (on abusive employers hiring foreign domestic workers in the future),” he added.

About 90 percent of foreign domestic workers in this South-east Asian country are Indonesians, many earning low wages of 350 ringgit (100 U.S. dollars) a month. Working hours are long and rest days are few, if at all.

“Sometimes maids are required to work at the boss’ home, at his factory and also for his relatives,” Kok said. “The maid gets up at 5 a.m. and sleeps at midnight. Such exploitation is so tragic.”

Even if abusive employers are charged, as the 2004 case of Indonesian domestic worker Nirmala Bonet shows, justice is long delayed. Bonet, who said she was scalded with hot water and attacked with a hot iron, made world headlines but three years later is still waiting for justice.

“Who remembers Nirmala today?” asked Irene Fernandez, executive director of Tenaganita, a NGO that championed Nirmala’s case.

Nirmala’s former employer Yim Pek Ha was charged for causing grievous hurt, but the case has been postponed many times and is still only partly heard. A ‘dream team’ of the country’s best lawyers are defending Yim.

“The delay is a miscarriage of justice,” she said. “Nirmala suffered severe injuries in the hands of her employer. Nirmala is neither able to work nor lead a normal life while the alleged perpetrators are free.”

“This is an example of a case where the environment and the whole legal system are very disabling to survivors of violence,” Fernandez added.

“Ceriyati’s case is also proof that such abuse continues unabated. . . that the culture of violence is happening each day, each hour,” she told IPS.

The Jakarta-based rights NGO Migrant Care has been pressing the Indonesian government to negotiate for a comprehensive law in Malaysia that covers recruitment, wages and protection to better protect Indonesian domestic workers from abuse.

“We need a comprehensive law to govern domestic helpers,” said Migrant Care’s Anis Hidayah. “There are many more untold stories of neglect and abuse like Ceriyati’s of Indonesian workers living and working abroad in abject conditions.”

Amnesty International said in a report earlier this year that Indonesia was failing to protect millions of domestic workers at home, some as young as 12, who face long hours and potentially deadly beatings and sexual abuse.

“Unfortunately, domestic workers remain invisible, working in isolation without being recognised as workers with rights. They are voiceless,” Fernandez pointed out.

Malaysia’s Employment Act, which covers all local and foreign workers, does not recognise domestic workers as labourers, but as servants. Because of this, there is no standard contract, no fixed off days, hours of work. The domestic workers’ passports are commonly kept by their employers.

“In short, the Malaysian government has created a fertile work environment for abuse and rights violations of domestic workers and placed the domestic worker in a very vulnerable situation,” Fernandez said.