However, after being removed from her employer’s home, the woman confessed to making the story up to gain sympathy and get a transfer to another employer, the embassy said in a statement.
“The embassy is concerned that she lied for her own convenience. She spun tales as if she were telling the truth without regard for the consequences. We stopped working on other urgent cases just to accommodate her request to be rescued,” said an embassy official.
He added that this is unfair for other OFWs who have legitimate complaints that need immediate action. “It was a weekend when she needed to be rescued. It was difficult because we could not secure the necessary permit from the governor's office to enter her sponsor's house in a private compound,” he said.
“Despite initial difficulties, the maid was rescued with the help of a recruitment agency. When interviewed by embassy officials, she expressed gratitude for getting her out. She, however, apologized for raising alarm as her allegations were untrue,” the embassy said.
Upon further clarification, she also admitted that she was told by her sister in the Philippines to fabricate the story that she was raped so that the embassy would prioritize her case over that of other distressed OFWs, the embassy said.
She said her real complaints were that she was not being given food and her salary had been delayed. She also executed an affidavit, freely and of her own will, denying the veracity of her story.
“In light of this affair, the embassy wishes to remind Filipinos in the Kingdom to be more circumspect in matters such as this, as such acts have serious consequences, including criminal liability,” the embassy added.
The embassy said it will continue to exert its best efforts to assist those who are distressed, and “untrue stories such as this, while seemingly beneficial to the person involved, work to the disadvantage of those who are truly in a difficult situation and need immediate assistance.”
The maid initially sent a text message to a Filipino community leader on Thursday that she had been repeatedly raped by her employer. The community leader forwarded the message to Arab News.
Sobbing and talking in a barely audible voice, the maid told Arab News that she had been raped five times by her employer since the start of Ramadan and begged to be rescued. When asked to speak louder, she said she could not because she might be heard by her sponsor’s wife.
Arab News sent a text message to the embassy and Vice Consul Roussel Reyes said that he had sent an embassy team to find the location of the house where the maid was working.
On Friday night, the maid repeatedly sent text messages to Arab News, begging that she be rescued because her sponsor was beating her up. Arab News forwarded the message to Ezzedin H. Tago, chargé d'affaires, who said they were trying to get her out.
Later in the night, Tago called Arab News to say that the maid was in the custody of Al-Najlain Agency, which had recruited her.
