Read this: “Swept under the rug” by Human Rights Watch

 

Since 2001, Human Rights Watch has conducted research on abuses against domestic workers in El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Hundreds of women, girl domestic workers, government officials, employment agents, employers, activists with private non-governmental and faith-based organizations, and representatives of international organizations were interviewed.

The extensive research reveals an alarming prevalence of abuses against domestic workers. There were happy stories but many more described deplorable working conditions and egregious violations of their rights that are strikingly similar across countries.

This blog wants to highlight their voices with the hope that we realise how unfortunate the conditions are for domestic workers, particularly the ones in Malaysia. Sometimes, I feel, domestic workers bring the worst out of Malaysians. Here are quotes from some of the domestic workers interviewed in the book entitled “Swept under the rug: Abuses against Domestic Workers Around the World” :

As a domestic worker, you have no control over your life. No one respects you. You have no rights. This is the lowest kind of work. —Hasana, child domestic worker who began employment at age twelve, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, December 4, 2004

I worked [there] for three months. Sometimes I did not get any food. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and slept at 10 p.m.…[My employer] shouted at me, “You are a poor person. You have to know your position, you are here to work.” I was not allowed to go out of the house. I had not seen my family since I left home. I was not paid any salary.… [My employer] hit me when she was angry. Three times she hit. Once she slapped my face and then kicked me above my right hip. It hurt and swelled up. I did not go to the doctor. She laughed when I asked that I wanted to see the doctor. —Asma, child domestic worker, age sixteen, Medan, Indonesia, December 13, 2004

Twice I lost consciousness as a result of the beatings. The first time it was raining and there was a leak in the house and I forgot to put a bowl out [to catch the water]. She hit me with a mop. The second time, when I washed the clothes, the color ran and the employer hit me. I said I was sorry and that I would return the cost by deducting it from my salary, but she still hit me. She never sent me to see a doctor or to the hospital. Once I was a hit by a wooden stick and she hit me until the stick broke. When I woke up late, after 5 a.m., the employer would pour hot water on me, like if I woke up at 6 a.m. —Titi Hasanah, Indonesian domestic worker, Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia, February 25, 2004

My employers used only abusive words. They didn’t hit me…they would say things like, “Why don’t you jump out of the window? Rather than thinking about your parents, it would be better if you just committed suicide by jumping out of the window.” The wife was really angry and used bad words. She called me a pig, a prostitute, an easy woman. —Sri Mulyani, Indonesian domestic worker, age thirty, Singapore, February 19, 2005 

If I did something the employer didn’t like, she would grab my hair and hit my head on the wall. She would say things like, “I don’t pay you to sit and watch TV! You don’t wash the dishes well. I pay your mother good money and you don’t do anything [to deserve it].”… Once I forgot clothes in the washer and they started to smell so she grabbed my head and tried to stick it in the washing machine.—Saida B., child domestic worker, age fifteen, Casablanca, Morocco, May 17, 2005

It was hard to work for them because there was not enough food. I got food once a day. If I made a mistake, for example, if we ran out of rice and I forgot to tell the employer, she wouldn’t give me food for two days. I often got treatment like that. Sometimes for one, two, three days. Because I was starving, I would steal food from the house. Because of that, the employer hit me badly. —Arianti Harikusumo, Indonesian domestic worker, age twenty-seven, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 25, 2004

When the lady went to drop off the children to the grandmother’s house, the man would stay at home…he raped me many, many times. Once a day, every day for three months. He hit me a lot because I didn’t want to have sex. I don’t know what a condom is, but he used some tissues after he raped me. [After paying off my three months’ debt] I took a knife, I said, “Don’t get near me, what are you doing?” I told the lady, she was very angry with me and [the next day] she took me to the harbor and said she bought a ticket for me to Pontianak. I had no money to get home from Pontianak. I haven’t gone to a doctor. — Zakiah, returned domestic worker from Malaysia, age twenty, Lombok, Indonesia, January 24, 2004

They would lock me inside the house with the baby. I was not allowed to make phone calls or send letters to my family. I wasn’t allowed to say anything or talk to the neighbors, I had to just keep quiet. —Ani Khadijah, Indonesian domestic worker, age thirty-four, Singapore, February 19, 2005

There was a woman who came to the market to buy charcoal. She found me and told my mother about a woman in Lomé who was looking for a girl like me to stay with her and do domestic work. She came to my mother and my mother gave me away. The woman gave my mother some money, but I don’t know how much.—Kéméyao A., child trafficking victim, age ten,Lomé, Togo, May 14, 2002

I left home when I was fifteen. I was told by an agent that I would be sent to Malaysia, but was placed in another house in Tanjungpinang [Indonesia]. I woke up at 4:15 a.m.… I was exhausted when I went to sleep at 10 p.m…. I only had five minutes’ rest. I did not get any day off. I did not get any salary. I worked there five months. —Asma, child domestic worker, age sixteen, Medan, Indonesia, December 13, 2005 

Sister, we are human. We need to take a day off. —Rita Yuboc, Filipina domestic worker, age twenty-four, Singapore, February 21, 2005

I worked for a husband, a wife, two girls and a boy… Sometimes I didn’t sleep. I washed clothes, prepared food for the children, and prepared them for school, one by one. I would prepare milk for the youngest and prepare food for cooking. I would vacuum, mop, clean the kitchen and water the flowers. Sometimes the employer was not satisfied and would ask me to redo it over again and again. My time was wasted by doing the work over and over again. I helped to cook all the meals, and I cleaned the toilets. I was working day and night. I am not sure when I finished, because she would ask me to redo the jobs many times… Sometimes the employer said, “If you can’t finish, you can’t sleep.” I never got any rest or any days off. — Ani Rukmono, Indonesian domestic worker, age twenty-one, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, February 26, 2004