Filipino maid endures abuse for three years

By Criselda E. Diala

DUBAI — For three years, a Filipina housemaid has been allegedly tortured by her employer, a Cypriot woman living in Dubai.

Apart from being hit by whatever object her employer, Maria M, could lay her hands on, she was apparently not given a square meal, her wages were not paid on time and she could hardly get any sleep because the household chores never seemed to end.  

"I have been hit by everything that can be found in the kitchen," said MC, 26, crying and shaking in fear as she showed to the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) staff the bruises on her face, arms and shoulders.

Anyone can spot her cauliflower ears, a kind of acquired physical deformity that occurs after being hit repeatedly on the ear.

According to some health journals, the blows to the ear can damage the shape and structure of the soft cartilage.

Barely five-feet tall, the frail-looking woman was brought into the PCG yesterday by a Filipina.

"I have known her for only a week but since the first time I saw her, I knew something was wrong. She was very scared to leave her employers. I had to convince her to run away, otherwise she will soon die from the abuse," said Jane, herself a housemaid.

MC, originally from South Cotabato, a province in Mindanao in the southern Philippines, arrived in Dubai in September 2003 as a bona fide UAE employment visa holder. It was her first job abroad.

She had been living with her employers at Apartment 16 in Building 18 of the Jebel Ali Garden.

"She would always shout at me. If I didn't clean the house the way she would want me to, she would hit me. I am always the last to eat because she only gives me the leftovers," MC said.

Relating another incident, MC said she woke up late one day and her employer was furious. "A few days ago, she banged my head against the wall and it bled. I think she got a little scared. But after a few days, I woke up late because I really felt sick, I couldn't barely get out of bed and my head was aching," she said. Instead of taking her to the doctor, the employer made MC "look like a dog", stand on all fours, and circle a table 20 times until she gave up because she felt very dizzy.

MC was paid Dh600 a month and in the three years that she had been working with her employers, she said she managed to call her husband in the Philippines only six times. The housemaid has not gone to her country since 2003.

"I have a daughter who is eight years old and I haven't seen her for three years. My family doesn't know that I have been treated this way here," she said.

The Philippine Consul General, Antonio S. Curameng, has instructed the PCG staff to admit the housemaid to a hospital for medical examination and to coordinate with the Dubai Police.

"We will have the employer arrested and make her feel the full impact of the law," Curameng said.

Meanwhile,  Fadi M, Maria's husband, denied that there was any ill-treatment. "It wasn't an abuse. The girl (MC) had some problems as well, but I have been coordinating closely with the Philippine consulate and we will settle this misunderstanding as soon as possible," he told Khaleej Times.

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