Bahrain Tribune - 29 December 2003

The case of Indonesian housemaid Saripah Binti Robadi who was admitted to Intensive Care Unit at the BDF Hospital after suffering assault at the hands of her employers and attempting suicide has become a source of concern for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). According to BCHR Chairman Nabeel Rajab, when he visited the hospital yesterday morning, he was told that she had been discharged and sent back to her sponsor’s home where she is awaiting departure to Indonesia.

“This is extremely disturbing and highlights the flaws in the system for reporting abuse that the BCHR and its sub-committee the Migrant Workers’ Group (MWG) has raised,” Nabeel Rajab said, adding, “Firstly the BCHR and the Indonesian community volunteers have not been given enough access to this woman. Secondly, why are the employers and the police in such a hurry to close the case and send her home? What about justice to this woman? Shouldn’t there be an enquiry about how she ended up in the hospital, why she sought to end her life and what damages she will be paid for her suffering? Shouldn’t her employers be punished for this treatment of another human being?”

Bahrain Tribune - 25 December 2003

Faripah, 20, attempted suicide following abuse

A 20-year-old Indonesian housemaid is in critical condition at the BDF Hospital after a failed suicide attempt by sticking a knife into her stomach.

According to the Chairman of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab, Faripah Binti Robadi has suffered repeated assault and violent beatings at the hands of her sponsor’s wife since she joined the household 15 months ago. The beatings escalated five months ago and before she tried to take her life, she had been badly beaten with a wooden stick in her legs, chest and head and even had an eye badly injured. The employer had also pulled out her hair.

Bahrain Tribune - 23 December 2003

Fourteen-year-old Indonesian maid, Fitri, who was rescued from abusive employers by the Migrant Workers Group (MWG) a sub-committee of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR). did not leave for her homeland yesterday as planned.

Fitri’s case raised a public outcry last week in Jakarta when MWG Vice-Chairman Salma Bala spoke about it on Indonesian television. She was there as part of a two-member Bahrain delegation for a UN workshop on women migrant workers. Members of the public are said to have jammed the television station phone lines with calls to the government to rescue her.

Bahrain Tribune - 21 December 2003

A Bahrain human rights delegation highlighted important issues facing “receiving countries” such as Bahrain to which women migrant workers go for work and called for closer co-operation between the receiving country and the country of origin.

In their presentation, Marwa Yousuf from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and Salma Bala, Vice-Chairperson of the Migrant Workers Group, (MWG), a sub-committee of the BCHR, called for a record of manpower agencies in both countries so that abuse and falsification of documents could be tracked and rectified.

In Terms of Laws, Institutions and Protection Mechanisms

A Paper Presented by Abdul Hadi Al Khawaja, Director
Bahrain Centre for Human Rights

Bahrain, 10th December, 2003

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Legislation: Constitution, Laws and Extraordinary Measures
3. Public Affairs Societies: Political Parties and Organizations at the Government’s Mercy
4. Media and Press
5. International Organisations and International Non-government Organisations