December18.net, 3 July 2004

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) has registered a strong protest at the lack of information given to it in the case of abused housemaid Anita Verma which came up for a court hearing this week.

“We were not informed and neither any BCHR observer nor our lawyers were present at the hearing,” BCHR Chairman Nabeel Rajab said. “This is a case that has dragged on and on and it is a pity that when it finally did come up for a hearing, neither we nor Verma were there to present their side of the case.”

Verma was rescued by the BCHR’s Migrant Workers’ Group (MWG) in October 2003 with severe facial bruising, head wounds and burns on her body. She filed a police complaint against her employer and in later interviews with Tribune, said she was under pressure to withdraw the case but would not do so. Rajab said Varma’s case was a classic example of the slow and uncertain justice process that abused domestic women workers face in Bahrain. “The BCHR has worked hard to raise awareness levels on the abuse faced by migrant women workers in Bahrain. We have raised considerable funds for a safe house for runaway women workers but are yet to receive the green signal from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to proceed with the completion of the projects. The delay in the court proceedings only aggravates the problem because these housemaids are not allowed to work in other places when waiting for the hearing and we end up spending our meagre resources in supporting them and sheltering them.”