Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
A story in the paper on Monday talks about a Filipino housemaid who was unaware she was pregnant when she got here just a few months ago.
When she did find out, she was advised by her recruitment agency in the Philippines to launch herself out a window or take an overdose of painkillers in order to bring on a miscarriage. That is so wrong I don’t even know where to start so I’m not going to comment.
Sadly for her, she had a fall at work and unfortunately miscarried the child and as a result wants to go home. She has gone running to her embassy with claims that she has not been paid for one month and that her sponsors are saying she has to pay for her own flight back. Well of course they are! It is part of the standard contracts here that all housemaids (and many other workers) receive one return ticket every two years. A fact that they are made aware of before they even leave their home countries.
I am the first person to be vocal about the injustices that workers and maids have to put up with here at the hands of their sponsors. But I also have to put pen to paper when I see an injustice being done to the sponsor. It is not their fault that the maid turned out to be pregnant and from what the maid has said in the paper, they were much more understanding and supportive of her than many would have been.
Having a miscarriage is unfortunate and I don’t want to minimise the impact of it but it is something that happens to thousands of women every day all over the world and when you are being well looked after (where so many are not) it is wrong to use it as an excuse to seek refuge at the embassy when there are so many more deserving cases.
