Thursday, 31 May 2012
By Cassandra Yeap and Phak Seangly
Phnom Penh Post
Chea Phalla, 28, was tortured by her employers. Photograph: Photo Supplied
A Malaysian couple has been charged with causing grievous harm to a
Cambodian maid, a rights worker said yesterday, in the latest of a
recent string of such prosecutions.
Hairdresser Tan Mong Huwai
and his wife Eng Lay Sang, both 36, were charged this week with abusing
Chea Phalla, 28, between August 2011 to May in Kuala Lumpur, according
to Liva Sreedharan, anti-trafficking program officer at Malaysian NGO
Tenaganita.
Chea Phalla had testified in a written statement that
her employers had used an iron rod to beat her and forced her to drink
her own urine and eat her faeces, Sreedharan said.
“The agency
was alerted about the abuse and they got the employer to bring the
domestic worker to the embassy. The embassy then brought her to the
hospital upon seeing her injuries,” she added.
If found guilty, the couple faces 20 years in prison and a fine or whipping.
Cambodian
embassy official Chhay Kosal said Chea Phalla was still recuperating in
hospital, breaking down slightly as he recounted her injuries.
“It
is unspeakable. I pity her. I absolutely have pity on Khmer women when I
see such cases,” he said, adding that Chea Phalla had worked in
Malaysia for two years. The embassy had worked together with the
recruitment agency, Cambodian Labor Supply, to bring the case to court,
he said.
The embassy has assisted and repatriated more than 10 maids this month.
The charges come a month after Malaysian employers Soh Chew Tong and Chin Chui Ling were charged with murder.
Their maid, Mey Sichan, 24, died in March of suspected starvation and physical abuse, police have told the Post.
Sreedharan
said the recent prosecutions showed awareness of abuses had been
heightened by the ban on Cambodian maids to Malaysia – imposed in
October after a rash of abuses surfaced there.
“There is more
prosecution, more willing to be witnesses, to speak up and assist these
girls in getting to the embassy,” she said.
4 comments:
These Muslim employer are animal themselves
they don't know how to threat another humanbeing like animals.
Hey, it is against humanity. If the Malaysian government does not have ability to make a solution, we can file a complaint to international court.
3:40 AM, the overwhelming majority of employers of domestic workers in Malaysia are not Muslims, they are ethnic Chinese who are Christians and Buddhists.
These ethnic Chinese are in competition with their fellow ethnic Chinese to show off to each other that they are rich or well off by employing maids, the more maids they employed the more people think they are rich. The fact is that the majority of them are not rich, some are just ordinary workers- factory workers, hairdressers or tutors etc. They tried to compete against each other so much that they become bankrupt and have no money to pay their maids and ended up abusing them, with some being killed.
I think the Cambodian government should bring all Cambodian maids back home to try to track down everyone of them to find out about their well being.
It is just a hairdresser? I intentionally say it because those couples are not human beings. They are really cheap people earning a piece of feces. They dared to beat Cambodian people. Is Malaysian a communist country? Only communist country that usually do it. There are so many cases. Why does Malaysian government take action? Malaysia is very good at masking themselves of being a good nation.
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