Asia One
The New Paper
Sunday, Aug 21, 2011
SHE had never been beaten and had never known hunger...until she went to work in Malaysia in April.
In the six weeks that Ms Hok Pov worked as a maid for a Malaysian family, she said she lost 10kg while toiling 20 hours a day with little to eat. She alleged she was also slapped and punched by her employer.
"I was so hungry I even ate chicken bones," said the sobbing 31-year-old Cambodian at the Kuala Lumpur office of Malaysian rights' group Tenaganita, which rescued her in June with the help of police.
She is among 41 Cambodian maids rescued this year by the group, highlighting the abuse and exploitation of foreign domestic workers due to inadequate laws in the country.
"There was always a lot of work to do and I had to suffer beatings. Once I was slapped so hard that my tooth fell off. Who can bear this?" she said.
Ms Hok Pov, who said her hair was cropped like a boy's, was promised a monthly salary of RM650 ($260) - double her wage as a factory worker in Cambodia. But she claimed she hasn't received any money from her employer.
"I just want to get my salary and get out of here. I don't ever want to come to Malaysia again," said Ms Hok Pov, who is married and has an 8-year-old son.
"They are rich, educated people, but why don't they have any compassion for the poor like me? I have no one to turn to. Every night, I cried myself to sleep. It was 1½ months in hell."
Tenaganita official Liva Sreedhana said it was difficult to file criminal charges against Ms Hok Pov's employer as she has no physical injury or scars to show.
The group is now negotiating with the employer, who is refusing to give Ms Hok Pov any money and is dodging meetings.
Ms Men Chaveasna, who lives in Tenaganita's shelter with Ms Hok Pov, completed her 2-year work contract last August but has yet to receive her wages.
Her Malaysian employer bought her a flight home and allegedly ditched her at the airport. Ms Chaveasna, 30, won a case in the labour court this year to demand wages totalling RM7,700 owed to her. But her employer appealed to the high court and the case is pending.
She, too, has decided to stay home.
"There are many new factories in Cambodia and I can find jobs," she said.
Concerns of abuse of Cambodian maids came under the public spotlight after a Cambodian maid was found dead last month outside her employer's home while another was rescued by Malaysian police after she was allegedly abused and had her head shaved bald by her employer.
According to the embassies of Indonesia and Cambodia - which have supplied the bulk of more than 230,000 foreign maids in Malaysia - about 2,000 women come forward every year with complaints of abuse.
A string of high-profile abuse cases, including deaths, led Indonesia to ban its women in 2009 from working in Malaysia.
Some 50,000 of the foreign maids in Malaysia are Cambodians, of which 30,000 came this year alone. Cambodian Ambassador Norodom Arunrasmy said yesterday that Malaysia is the only country that recruits Cambodian maids, giving the poor a lifeline.
She added that the Cambodian government is in the process of drafting a new law to protect its maids, including screening the employers.
"To ban or not to ban would be up to my government but they (the government) also know that our people need work and jobs in order to survive," she said.
SHE had never been beaten and had never known hunger...until she went to work in Malaysia in April.
In the six weeks that Ms Hok Pov worked as a maid for a Malaysian family, she said she lost 10kg while toiling 20 hours a day with little to eat. She alleged she was also slapped and punched by her employer.
"I was so hungry I even ate chicken bones," said the sobbing 31-year-old Cambodian at the Kuala Lumpur office of Malaysian rights' group Tenaganita, which rescued her in June with the help of police.
She is among 41 Cambodian maids rescued this year by the group, highlighting the abuse and exploitation of foreign domestic workers due to inadequate laws in the country.
"There was always a lot of work to do and I had to suffer beatings. Once I was slapped so hard that my tooth fell off. Who can bear this?" she said.
Ms Hok Pov, who said her hair was cropped like a boy's, was promised a monthly salary of RM650 ($260) - double her wage as a factory worker in Cambodia. But she claimed she hasn't received any money from her employer.
"I just want to get my salary and get out of here. I don't ever want to come to Malaysia again," said Ms Hok Pov, who is married and has an 8-year-old son.
"They are rich, educated people, but why don't they have any compassion for the poor like me? I have no one to turn to. Every night, I cried myself to sleep. It was 1½ months in hell."
Tenaganita official Liva Sreedhana said it was difficult to file criminal charges against Ms Hok Pov's employer as she has no physical injury or scars to show.
The group is now negotiating with the employer, who is refusing to give Ms Hok Pov any money and is dodging meetings.
Ms Men Chaveasna, who lives in Tenaganita's shelter with Ms Hok Pov, completed her 2-year work contract last August but has yet to receive her wages.
Her Malaysian employer bought her a flight home and allegedly ditched her at the airport. Ms Chaveasna, 30, won a case in the labour court this year to demand wages totalling RM7,700 owed to her. But her employer appealed to the high court and the case is pending.
She, too, has decided to stay home.
"There are many new factories in Cambodia and I can find jobs," she said.
Concerns of abuse of Cambodian maids came under the public spotlight after a Cambodian maid was found dead last month outside her employer's home while another was rescued by Malaysian police after she was allegedly abused and had her head shaved bald by her employer.
According to the embassies of Indonesia and Cambodia - which have supplied the bulk of more than 230,000 foreign maids in Malaysia - about 2,000 women come forward every year with complaints of abuse.
A string of high-profile abuse cases, including deaths, led Indonesia to ban its women in 2009 from working in Malaysia.
Some 50,000 of the foreign maids in Malaysia are Cambodians, of which 30,000 came this year alone. Cambodian Ambassador Norodom Arunrasmy said yesterday that Malaysia is the only country that recruits Cambodian maids, giving the poor a lifeline.
She added that the Cambodian government is in the process of drafting a new law to protect its maids, including screening the employers.
"To ban or not to ban would be up to my government but they (the government) also know that our people need work and jobs in order to survive," she said.
5 comments:
Why people still wanna go abroad and work??
do you think people like being punch in the face? there is no real job in Cambodia that is why.
Hun's politics COUNTRY FOR SALE is a time bomb politics.
Cambodia have not invested in education there fore there will be no hope for industry or any jobs in the future like Korea,Japan or Singapore.
Cambodia is a farming country if
you take away land and sold for cheap money for 99 years this will accelerate the speed of down turn economy. It will create long term poverty as the natural resources and land will be controlled by foreigners.
You do not need to be a Dr. of economics or politics to think about this. Hun has committed direct crime against his own people for generation to come.
Hundred thousand of people some are young under age and old people that leave the country for slavery job abroad are the direct consequences of his policy.
Cambodia should have been a prosperous and happy nation if we have a proper leader.It is a golden land,a river run through country,but it is being abused by a bunch of corrupted Hanoi's installed criminals who careless about the miseries of his own people.
True Khmer
True, nobody want to leave their children and family to go to work abroad. The fact that they went was because there was no job in cambodia. No one wanted to be badly treated by anybody, especially in foreign countries. We should just feel sorry for these people who are less fortunate than us and have to face abuses, rapes and beatings at the hands of heartless foreign employers like this.
Young girls working as a maid very dangerous...I would not let my child working as a maid, i'll send my husband instead!
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