Tuesday 15 January 2013 | Independent
In 2010, 27 migrant workers were executed
in Saudi Arabia and, according to Amnesty International, more than 45 foreign
maids are currently on death row
A
young Sri Lankan woman was beheaded with a sword last Wednesday in a
Dawadmi, a small town in Saudi Arabia. Rizana Nafeek was found guilty of
murdering her employers’ child – a crime she vehemently denied until death.
Rizana
is not the only migrant worker to have been executed in Saudi Arabia – at least
27 were executed in 2010 and more than 45 foreign maids are facing execution on
death row according to Amnesty International. Rizana’s deadly fate highlights
the plight of migrant workers all around the world.
Like
many migrant workers’ Rizana’s story began when she left her home country Sri
Lanka in 2005 for Saudi Arabia to work as a housemaid where she could earn
enough money to support her relatives. In the same year she was arrested,
charged, convicted and sentenced to death for murdering her employers’
four-month-old son, Kayed bin Nayef bin Jazyan al-Otaibi. Rizana said the child
choked on milk and died. The child’s family believed Rizana had strangled the
child after attempting to bottle-feed him.
Once
arrested Rizana battled with an unjust Saudi legal system. "Defendants are
rarely allowed formal representation by a lawyer and in many cases are kept in
the dark about the progress of legal proceedings against them," Amnesty
International said. The Sri Lankan government and human rights organisations
campaigned for Rizana to have a fair trial.
Rizana
did not have legal representation prior to her trial – and – she was physically
assaulted and forced to sign a confession under duress, which she later
retracted. Under international law Rizana at the age of 17 was too young to
receive the death penalty. As a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child, Saudi Arabia is prohibited from sentencing a child under the age of
18 at the time of the alleged offence to death. It is unlikely Saudi Arabia
will be subject to any stringent sanctions for violating international law,
which led to the death of a young woman.
Rizana’s
birth certificate showed she was only 17 when the murder allegedly took place,
while her passport shows she was 23. However it is alleged her passport was
falsified to enable her to enter the country and work as a housemaid. It is
claimed her employment agency were aware that she was 17 but purporting to be
aged 23. Like many agencies working with migrant employees they dehumanize
workers and view them as cheap labour and mere commodities.
8.3 million migrants are legitimately
working in Saudi Arabia with many more working illegally. Many workers come
from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines in search of a better
life only to be subject to abuse and oppression while isolated from friends and
family in a foreign land.
There
are 52.6 million people employed as domestic workers all across the world and at
least 15.5 million of them are children under the age of 18 according to a report
by UN
International Labour Organisation (ILO). Although it is thought this figure may be closer
to 100 million – but it is impossible to know, as many work illegally.
Workers
are subject to harsh condition in countries, which do not have adequate Labour
laws to uphold worker’s human rights. In a review
of 72 countries’ labour laws, the ILO found that 40 percent of countries did
not guarantee domestic workers a weekly rest day, and half did not limit hours
of work. To assert their rights migrant workers are forced into a losing battle
with their employers.
Recurring
problems include, harsh work conditions, food and sleep deprivation, forced
confinement, under payment or none payment, stolen passports and employment
contracts with no get-out clause. Human
Rights Watch
has stated that physical and sexual abuse of migrant workers is a prevailing
concern with many workers subjected to slavery. To stamp out the abhorrent
abuse of migrant workers a global standard of domestic worker conditions for
all countries needs to be enshrined in law. Once established such laws needs to
be enforced with stringent sanctions imposed.
