A. Veronica Fernandes
Kuwait.
QUOTE “ KUWAIT CITY, Aug 3: A Fillipina household service worker escaped from her Kuwaiti employer and sought refuge at the Philippine Embassy after alleged suffering severe maltreatment that almost damaged her eyesight. Angela, 24, single and native of Lanao Del Sur in Southern Philippines who arrived in Kuwait on Aug 14, 2010 claimed that she had been maltreated by her lady employer since the day she started working for that household. She showed to the Arab Times on Wednesday the scars and bruises that dot various parts of her body, detailing every form of abuse that she allegedly suffered at the hands of her lady employer. She also complained that she was not paid her salary since she started working for them. “She just let me sign a piece of paper that I got my salary but I didn’t receive any money and I wasn’t able to send to my family to the Philippines” she disclosed.
Angela with tears welling in her eyes can barley open her right eye after her lady employer poked it with her long fingernail. “She pokes my right eye every month. She would insert her long fingernail into my eye and she tries to pull out my eyeball till it bleeds profusely. I cry for mercy but she doesn’t stop until the blood oozes from my eye”, she recounted in between sobs. She added that one of the five kids of her lady employer is blind. “Her nine-year old son is totally blind and she wants me to be like him, so she pokes my right eye every month. There was a time, that I can’t see anything anymore. It was total black, then now my vision is blurry”, she lamented.
Angela narrated that her lady employer also banged her forehead on the wall for no apparent reason. “She wants me to do all things fast but I’m all alone in their house. The other Sri Lankan maid was able to escape. So she would hold my hair and bang my forehead on the wall,” she stated. She cited that her lady employer also strangled her with her bare hands that she gasped for breath and almost choked to death “These are the scars after she strangled me. I thought I would already die,” she stated. She also showed the scar on her left arm when her madam pressed a steaming hot iron on her arm
“She also stepped on my feet till they bled. These are the wounds that have healed”, she showed. She then took off her jacket and rolled up the sleeves of her blouse and showed a scar near her shoulder blade. “She bit me so hard with her teeth digging into my flesh. I cried for mercy but she still went on till my back bled,” she wept.
Her hands are also wrinkled and scarred after her lady employer allegedly tried to break her fingers. “I just prayed to God to give me enough strength and I also thought of my family. I want to go home alive and in one piece. On July 27, my prayer was finally answered when I was throwing some diapers, I saw the door was open, so I ran outside till an Indian couple found me and helped me. They dropped me at the embassy the next day and I want to thank them for that,” she narrated.
Currently, Anjela is temporarily housed at the Philipino Workers Resource Center in Jabriya under the care of Philippine Labour Attache David Des Dicang. “We have already brought Angela to the hospital for medical examination and treatment, especially her eyes. The doctor gave her some eye drops as she has been complaining of a blurry vision. She will be going back there again for another check-up,” pointed out Dicang. He cited that the Assistance to Nationals Unit at the Philippine Embassy headed by Dalidig Ibrahim Tanandatu has already endorsed the case of Angela to the prosecutor’s office and vowed to file a case against her lady employer.
“The Philippine embassy under the leadership of Ambassador Shulan Primavera will extend all the legal assistance to her so justice will be served,” stressed Dicang. “ UNQUOTE.
