JEDDAH, 18 December 2002 — Sexual harassment, humiliation, severe beatings and delayed salaries are the major reasons that compel housemaids to resort to suicide or escape by jumping from high-rise buildings, Al-Watan newspaper quoted Talal Al-Nashiri, director of social services at the King Fahd General hospital here, as saying.
Al-Nashiri said the hospital receives cases of housemaids with serious fractures caused by falls from the upper floors of apartments at the rate of two or three weekly.
The jumps from apartment windows and balconies might lead to death or multiple fractures, especially of the spinal chord, legs and skull. In most cases the clothes they improvise as ropes to slide down from the upper story windows snap and this ends up in a fatal fall, the director added.
Mostly, the bid to run away or commit suicide is made on justifiable grounds and the incidence of such tragedies is a matter of concern, he said.
Al-Nashri is also concerned because the sponsors of injured housemaids fail in most cases to pay the hospital bills, especially if the bills are hefty. Treatment for spinal injuries is expensive because the device for firming up the vertebrae alone costs SR 4,000, and there are extra expenses for physiotherapy, which may last six months.
Hospital studies also revealed that it is mostly newcomers to the Kingdom who attempt suicide.
Apart from harassment, humiliation, beating and delay in payment, work pressure with long hours, insufficient food and lack of sufficient time for rest and relaxation are the causes that lead them to run away or attempt suicide.
More than 80 percent of the housemaids under treatment at the orthopedic ward in the King Fahd Hospital are Indonesians, followed by Sri Lankans.
One of the housemaids being treated for a spinal injury said she came to the Kingdom a second time because her previous three-year stay here was very good. Unfortunately, the second innings turned out to be very unlucky.
She had to work with a large family with too many chores. The wife of the sponsor used to beat her for trivial reasons. So the maid decided to leave but the employer’s wife refused to pay her salary. So, in an attempt to commit suicide she jumped from the apartment on the third floor two months ago.
Her sponsor never came to the hospital inquiring after her, she lamented.
Another housemaid, who was new to the country, complained that she attempted suicide not because of any ill-treatment by her employer’s family. It was the other maids who treated her cruelly. She is grateful to her sponsor who brought her to the hospital and paid the hospital bill.
Most employers dismiss the maids’ charges as lies. They say some maids have illicit relations with watchmen. They also blamed the maids for not doing their duties properly.
Umm Khaled said her maid ran away on the eve of Eid for no apparent reason. She chose to escape via the balcony, which is dangerously high, though the front door of the flat was not locked.
