Issue - Y-oman.com

KnowyourRightsWords Paul McLoughlin | Photography Jerzy WierzbickiAmelito Adel, the Overseas Workers Welfare Association (OWWA) officer withthe Philippines Embassy, is frustrated and understandably so. He has spent thewhole day dealing with case after case of the same heart-breaking stories; storiesof servitude and ill-treatment that could have been lifted straight from a Dickensnovel. Lorna is one of these ladies. She now lives with forty other ladies who havealso fled from their employers at the OWWA Centre, a refuge of sorts attached tothe Philippines Embassy. Until their cases are resolved, the embassy area is theirtemporary home. Hunched and timid, Lorna occasionally peers over her thin-framedglasses as she quietly explains how she came to be a resident in the embassy and itis a common story. Lorna was employed by a local family as a domestic worker, withthe promise of 400 dollars a month. She quickly came to realise that the golden lifeshe had hoped for in Oman was to be very different. Upon arrival in the country shewas informed by her employer that she would only be paid 80 rials a month, with nodays off. Speaking of the experience she says, “I didn’t feel human. I was expectedto work all the time and had no break and my salary was never paid on time.”The gruelling days and general ill-treatment wasjust the start of her painful path here in Oman.After being beaten by the “madam” for supposedlystealing food, she lived for a further six months atthe home in constant fear with no knowledge of herrights. The final straw came when her “master”pushed her against the wall for “answering back”and began to slap her. Lorna says, “He said it isgood for me to be beaten because he is betterthan me. He said it’s good for me to kiss his feetbecause I am just a housemaid.” With a black eyeand bruises over her body she fled to the embassy.A complaint was filed against her ex-employer butshe says nothing was done about the problem andnow she is waiting to return to the Philippines,although she does not know when this will be.This power still remains with her ex-employer whostill holds the release paper that Lorna requires inorder to leave the country. She says, “There is stillone girl working there as the babysitter, but she isstronger than me. She can handle being treatedlike this.”It’s stories like Lorna’s which are whispered across dinner tables across Muscat tohummed nods of sympathy, yet little else is done for her. Instead her life is replayedthrough forms and phone calls between her ex-employer, departments in ministriesand other levels of bureaucracy. She is now waiting in limbo in the confined walls ofthe embassy until her case is resolved. There have been frequent complaints fromthe Philippines Embassy about the treatment of domestic workers in the Sultanatefrom many different levels. When I discuss the problem with staff there one wordwhich frequently pops up is “slave” – an extremely strong word, but these are thepeople who deal with dozens of cases of abuse and ill-treatment every week and areprobably more informed of the real situation for domestic workers than anyone elsein the country. Although there have been efforts to help resolve the situation by thegovernment, these measures are usually half-baked or completely ineffective. Thewell-known 400 dollar minimum wage requirement that employers must sign when20 21