Law must bear down on maid abuse

Cases of maids being mistreated in the country are surfacing again making one wonder if these incidents are becoming a rule rather than an exception. A recent incident was particularly shocking, where two maids were allegedly tortured, resulting in the death of one woman due to pneumonia.

The woman who has been accused of perpetuating such torture allegedly beat the maids with sticks, banged their heads against the wall, forced them to drink cleaning products and sometimes starved them. She is also alleged to have refused to provide adequate medical care to them.

Embassies of different countries have taken various measures to help protect maids, but ultimately it is the sponsors who decide how to treat them — as an extension of the family or as bonded labourers with no rights. Having left their families thousands of kilometres away, maids entrust their lives into the hands of sponsors they may never have met before. In return they are sometimes paid with torture and abuse. Sponsors who mistreat their maids must be punished severely under the full weight of the law. At the end of the day, maids are human beings too and no man or woman has the right to mistreat another for the work he or she does.