Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he wants justice for a domestic
worker who was allegedly tortured by her employers in Saudi Arabia. The 23-year-old
maid has been hospitalized in Medina since November 8th, with burns all
over her body, a fractured middle finger and cuts around her lips, reportedly made
by scissors.
Domestic workers works “end up being under the complete and utter
control of their employers behind the closed doors of their homes,” says Audrey Guichon,
Domestic Worker Programme Coordinator for Anti-Slavery International.
She
told Vatican Radio migrant domestic workers are often treated like slaves.
“What
is happening in the Middle East is the near total impunity that employers benefit
from has led them to thinking they can treat their worker they way they want,” she
says. “That includes torturing them, beating them, burning them, treating them like
a subhuman, and abusing them sexually and psychologically.”
Listen to
Audrey Guichon’s full interview with Charles Collins: