A Sri Lankan maid died in Amiri hospital after being admitted by her Kuwaiti sponsor in a critical condition, a local daily reported. After a medical examination, burn marks, cuts and wounds were discovered on her body and she was shifted to the intensive care, but passed away after a few hours. The security authorities have opened an investigation into the Kuwaiti sponsor and his wife for allegedly torturing the maid.
The victim’s body has been referred to the forensics department for a complete report and to determine the surrounding circumstances of physical injuries. The sponsor has denied involvement in her death.
Infringement of domestic-worker laws and abuse of their rights are reported frequently in Kuwait. Only recently in August, a 40-year-old female Kuwaiti citizen allegedly inflicted various burns on the body of her elderly Sri Lankan maid leading her to be detained on charges of torture. It is believed her three underage sons were also participants in this heinous act.
The maid sent a distress call to her country’s embassy, revealing that she was being tortured and detained by her sponsor, who is residing in Farwaniya governorate.
The Ministry of Interior dealt with this case in a very decisive manner sending a security team from Farwaniya to go the house, and free the Sri Lankan woman. The security men saw the burns on her body, so she was taken to the police station to register a case against the sponsor for deliberate torturing the victim with fire causing severe harm.
She was sent to her country’s embassy to complete legal procedures and have a forensics report done where the severe injuries and burnt marks were documented on various parts of her body. The Sri Lankan embassy notified the Ministry of Interior and informed them of the contents of the report and the plea for help they had received.
According to a retread of the events leading to the torture, the Sri Lankan maid had asked her sponsor that she be allowed to return to Sri Lanka permanently as she was very old. She was refused and tortured. The victim in her statement to the police said the sponsors three sons used to hold her down while her female sponsor used to heat various items to burn her shoulders, chest and various parts of her body. The three under-aged sons were released after juvenile felony case was registered against them.
In February 2020, the Criminal Court had overturned a two years jail sentence with hard labor against a citizen who was accused of torturing his housemaid with a hot spoon in different parts of her body. The forensic report supported her complaints, and she had to undergo treatment for over 30 days.
Last year, Rehana Begum, from the Indian state of Hyderabad, claimed that she was sent to Kuwait on false promises of a decent job and instead ended-up being tortured by her employers.
Speaking to the media in her hometown, Ms. Begum alleged that she had been cheated by an agent who had promised her a job as a beautician in a beauty-parlor in Kuwait on a salary of KD 130 (equivalent to Indian rupees 30,000) per month.
But arriving in Kuwait in January 2019, she was horrified to find that her employment was as a housemaid. Over the next five months she was regularly tortured by her sponsors for not doing the duties that she had not signed on for.
These are just a few of the cases regularly reported in the media of domestic workers suffering abuse and torture by sponsors and being cheated by recruitment offices or their agents.
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