This web site has been trying to document the many cases wherein Filipino housemaids were abused in foreign lands. As a general rule, Overseas Filipinos, especially Filipino Americans, do not make any protest at all about the sufferings of Filipino maids. Perhaps if the ABC Network will produce a TV series called "Desperate Housemaids," then many Filipinos will now protest against the abuses that Filipino maids are receiving from their foreign employers.

We are reprinting a true-to-life report sent by a Filipino worker in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who calls himself Yusuf, as posted by a certain "Mario Rotana" in an e-forum. This is not the first time that a Filipino maid has "jumped" or fallen from a tall building. Please click this hyperlink http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/457/51/  and read again how Dinia Baliton jumped from the fifth-floor apartment of her employer, a Filipino diplomat based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ms. Winda Lagumbay-Petilla has also written stories about the abuses that Filipino maids have suffered. And yet there was no public outcry from Overseas-Filipino community leaders. Here is an article written by Ms. Winda (AKA Ms. Moonglow) http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/473/51/

Please read also the article, "The Continued Abuse of Filipino Maids" at this link http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/453/51/

Here is the story from Jeddah:

QUOTE Salam to you all,

In case you have missed yesterday's Arab News. There was very disturbing (sic) news as I am sharing below.

What’s new to the story is the fact that, the writers and the newspaper published the complete names of her employer and the company, in detail. I think as far as I can remember, this is a first in the history of reporting labor abuse in the Kingdom.

Really, these individuals deserve to be put in the "hall of shame". No mercy!

Enough of this anonymous reporting. In the past, news papers are mentioning the name of the abused employee but very protective of the identity of the bacteria-brained abusers/employers.

They deserve an enormous amount of spit in the face.

The reporters must be commended for upholding human rights and the dignity of the victim.

Let’s find the e-mail address of the husband who took pity, and thank him for not succumbing to the inhuman treatment from his ill wife.

Yusuf

* * * *

Beaten, Locked Up for Refusing to Be a Maid

By Ebtihal Mubarak & Ronald Concha
Arab News
JEDDAH, 26 October 2007

A 37-year-old Filipino beautician is being treated at a hospital in Jeddah for serious injuries she suffered after falling from a building while trying to escape alleged maltreatment from her employer.

Officials at the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah yesterday said Myrna Salvador was admitted to Dr. Baksh Hospital in the Mina district of the city after suffering a fractured spine and hip. She was brought to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon by her employer's driver and another worker. Salvador, a single mother, left her two young children with relatives in the Philippine Province of Bulacan when she was recruited by Samba Services agency to work at a beauty parlor owned by her employer, Malika Al-Otaibi, in Jeddah for a salary of SR1,500 a month.

On arrival in Jeddah last Sunday, Al-Otaibi reportedly told her at first "in a nice way" to work as a maid for the family for a SR750 monthly salary. Salvador said she was brought to her employer's Al-Nahda Dress Shop in the Mahjar district where she was asked to sign a new contract stating she would work as a maid. When she pointed out that she was hired as a beautician as stated by her contract that was authenticated by the Saudi Embassy in Manila and the Philippine Overseas Employment Office (POEA), the employer reportedly became angry and beat her up in front of her children and other workers at the dress shop. She slapped me and beat me up with a ladle.

Even her daughters were crying 'miskeena, miskeena' but she refused to stop," Salvador recounted from her hospital bed. Al-Otaibi then reportedly ordered Salvador be locked up in a room, without any food. However, on Wednesday, she managed to climb out of a hole and attempted to climb down but slipped and fell, fracturing her spine. Despite Salvador's condition, Al-Otaibi, who was at the shop at the time, told her driver to take Salvador to a police station and have her deported. Fortunately, her husband took pity and insisted that I be brought to a hospital instead," Salvador told Arab News.

Contacted by Arab News on her cell phone yesterday, Al-Otaibi at first denied knowing Salvador. But when told that Salvador broke her back while escaping from their villa, Al-Otaibi said: "She is just a woman who came and ran away." She said Salvador came all the way from the Philippines with the intention to escape, encouraged by her mother who works in Jeddah. She broke the metal bars on the window and threw herself off from the roof," she said, denying that she physically abused Salvador. "She got hurt because she jumped from the window."

Asked if it was true that she tried to force her beautician employee to work in her house as a maid, Al-Otaibi angrily replied: "Stop asking me about her, whoever wants to commit suicide is free to do so. I have workers working for me for more than 20 years. Nothing like this has happened before," she said before hanging up.

Less than 10 minutes later, she telephoned Arab News and threatened that if any of her comments were to be published then she would see to it that the newspaper is closed down. In a heavy Moroccan accent, before abruptly hanging the phone, she screamed: I'll show you what Moroccans can do."

Mercy Evangelista, Salvador's mother who works in another dress shop as a seamstress, said she came to the rescue of her daughter when she heard that she was being maltreated.

Labor Attaché Adam Musa, head of the Philippine Consulate's Welfare Office, said people working for Al-Otaibi tried to take Salvador away from the hospital yesterday but hospital and consulate personnel stopped them. We are not going to let them take the patient away," Musa said, noting that Salvador needed surgery. He said Salvador's mother has filed a police report of maltreatment against her daughter's employer. # # #