Indian maid returns after 8-month ordeal in Bahrain

Middle East News

Indian maid returns after 8-month ordeal in Bahrain

Dubai, July 7 (IANS) An Indian housemaid in Bahrain, who claimed that she was isolated from the outside world and subjected to a lot of suffering by her Bahraini employer, has finally been sent home.

According to reports, Masooda Beevi, 35, was reportedly sent back to India by flight Wednesday night.

In May, Beevi had sent a letter through her neighbour's housemaid to the Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam (BKS or Association of Keralites in Bahrain) alleging that her Bahraini sponsor had subjected her to mistreatment for five months.

'I am not given a single decent meal even once a day or proper clothing and I have to use the clothes that I pick from the garbage bins in the locality,' she had stated in the letter.

She also alleged that she was refused use of the air-conditioner in the scorching summer days and had been spending the nights pouring cold water on her head and applying water-soaked towels on her body.

After the BKS forwarded the letter to the Indian embassy in Manama, officials met Beevi in May itself and the issue seemed to have been resolved.

However, according to a report in the Gulf Daily News newspaper, the abuse continued.

She was not fed properly and was admitted to a private clinic in Isa Town, the report quoted social worker Babu Kurumelil, who spearheaded a campaign to help her get home, as saying.

According to Kurumelil, who met the maid at the hospital, her Bahraini employer took her back from the embassy in May promising that he would treat her well and pay her due salary of 110 Bahraini dinars in addition to paying for her air ticket to India.

'She claimed that soon after taking her back to the house from the embassy, the sponsor took the money he had given her, saying he would use it to pay for an air ticket,' Kurumelil told the newspaper.

According to Kurumelil, the fact that abuse had continued came to light only after she was admitted to the hospital.

He said after her discharge from the hospital, she was taken to manpower recruitment agency that had got her the job and was not allowed to go to her employer's home.

The agency then gave her an air ticket. The ticket from Mumbai to her home in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, was bought by her.

Kurumelil also said her employer had paid her the overdue salary prior to her departure.

She was back home eight months after her ordeal began.

Latest News

Star stuff

Indian maid returns after 8-month ordeal in Bahrain