Ordeals of an Indian housemaid, who had sought refuge with Dammam police after being allegedly tortured by her employer, ended Friday. Jamila, 35, was sent home to India after her employers issued her exit visa, gave her air ticket, and paid her seven months back salary. The intervention and negotiation of the Dammam Police, the Indian Embassy, and Indian community leaders with the employers hastened the resolution of the case. “I got my rights at last and I thank the Dammam Police, the Indian Embassy, Indian welfare organizations for their support and help,” she said in her parting remarks. Jamila had sought help from police, which took her to Dammam Central Hospital for treatment of her injuries. At her hospital bed, she related the harrowing experience she suffered for 13 months since her arrival to work. “I worked from dawn to past midnight, the workload was never ending, and I have to endure the pain of being beaten while working,” Jamila said, showing Saudi Gazette her scars as a result of physical abuse. “I was not given decent food. All I ate were leftover food of the family members. Most often I go to bed hungry,” she said. “For a minor mistake, my employer and other members of the family would beat me up and drag me down the staircase. The torture was unbearable and to save my life, as a last resort, I escaped and sought refuge with the police,” she said. Jamila was also suffering from blood sugar level, which was above 600 when she was admitted to the hospital. She said her lady employer never took initiative to take her to hospital. Instead, she alleged, her employer confiscated her medicine. Within the last 13 months she lost 25 kg because of lack of nutrition. Nurses attending on her said she weighed only 32 kg. “I was hired on a monthly wage of SR600. I never received salary for the first six months. My employer told me that she had sent my salary directly to my family back in India, but I had no way of verifying this because I was not allowed to contact my family,” she claimed. She alleged that every time she would demand her salary, she would be beaten up. “Many times I fell unconscious and I was not given any medical treatment. Once, I was beaten with the handle of a mop till the mop broke,” she alleged. She was also allegedly locked inside the house for long hours while her employer and family were out. Jamila lost almost all of her fingernails. Her fingers got sore due to the extensive use of cleaning chemicals. At the police station, she was not even able to hold a pen to sign her name in the complaint taken down by the police. Jamila's plight reached the Indian Embassy in Riyadh through the intercession of Indian social worker Mohan Shornoor. The embassy assigned a welfare attaché to follow up her case. Mohan Shornoor, who has supported many Indian distressed workers, and women members of the Kerala Relief and Welfare Organization, a volunteer group, took care of Jamila in the hospital. “I came to Saudi Arabia hoping to make enough money to build a house for my aging mother and only daughter. Now I lost that hope; I just want to get back to my family alive,” Jamila said when she was in the hospital. “I am sure I will be granted justice by the Saudi authorities and will be sent home as soon as possible,” she said in the interview conducted before her departure. The Dammam police summoned the employers and registered a case against them. Many housemaids from Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Philippines work for families. Though majority of these housemaids are treated well, cases of abuse and torture by abusive employers have increased recently, reason why housemaids run away. __
