Angela Merkel warns David Cameron over freedom of movement

German chancellor rejects UK prime minister’s demands for a cap on unskilled migrants, according to Der Spiegel newspaper

The Guardian, Rowena Mason and Philip Oltermann, Sunday 2 November 2014

Sources claim Angela Merkel said David Cameron's demands for freedom of
movement changes represented a 'point of no return'. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/PA

David Cameron has been warned by German chancellor Angela Merkel that she would rather see the UK leave the European Union than change freedom of movement rules, according to reports.

Downing Street on Sunday did not deny that the conversation had taken place, after German newspaper Der Spiegel said Merkel had rejected Cameron’s demands for a cap on unskilled migrants. Sources told the newspaper that the chancellor said demands for any changes to freedom of movement rules represented a “point of no return” and that this would be it for the UK’s membership.

Over the weekend, the Sunday Times also reported that the prime minister has dropped plans for quotas in a bid to placate the Germans and that Cameron is now looking at whether the government can ask EU immigrants to leave the country unless they can support themselves within three months of arriving in the UK.

Asked whether the Der Spiegel report was an accurate account of the encounter between Cameron and Merkel, a Number 10 official would only say: “The prime minister will do what is right for Britain as he has repeatedly made clear.”

However, a spokesman for the German chancellor indirectly confirmed Der Spiegel’s report by reiterating a statement Merkel had made at a press conference after the recent EU summit: “Germany does not want to touch the basic principle of free movement of persons within the EU.”

Merkel’s reported arguments were backed up on Sunday by Ken Clarke, the senior Tory MP and former cabinet minister, who said free movement of labour was “absolutely essential” to the whole concept of a single market.

He told the BBC’s Sunday Politics: “Not only is that one of the principles of the EU, it’s the basis of any serious single market. The Norwegians, who eurosceptics admire, they accept the free movement of labour. They’ve got a bigger proportion of other EU nationals in their country compared with their own nationals than we have.

“If you want to be in the single market, if you want to be a modern economy then the free movement of labour is essential, but free movement of labour shouldn’t be abused.”

It comes amid speculation that Cameron is rowing back from his focus and tough language on immigration amid fears that the Conservatives will never be able to go as far as Ukip supporters want. Jim Messina, a US election strategist who worked on Barack Obama’s campaign, is said to have told a Tory awayday on Friday that every moment the party is not talking about the economy between now and the election is wasted.

However, Boris Johnson will keep to the subject of immigration on Monday, as he backs a report by the Commonwealth Exchange calling for more immigration from Commonwealth countries instead of so much from the EU.

In his foreword, he will say: “We should welcome the brightest and the best from a wider range of countries.

“As we re-examine our relationship with the EU, we have a vital opportunity to recast our immigration system in just this way. And the first place to start is with the Commonwealth.”

The issue of immigration is also tricky for Labour. Over the weekend, Ian Austin, a former aide to Gordon Brown and MP for Dudley North, called on his party to “be honest” and “say sorry” for opening the borders to eastern Europeans in 2004.

The row is the latest piece of Europe-related bad news for Cameron in recent days: last week he suffered a double blow when a parliamentary bill to establish an EU membership referendum by the end of 2017 collapsed, and a key UK ally told Britain to accept a demand from Brussels to pay an extra £1.7bn.

SBY Meets With Families of Migrant Workers Facing Death Sentences Overseas

Jakarta Globe, Mar 30, 2014

President Yudhoyono meets with the families of migrant workers on death

row in Central Java on March 30, 2014. (Photo courtesy of Twitter/@sbyudhoyono)

Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Sunday met with families of Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty abroad, in the wake of recently announced negotiations to save the life of a worker who admitted to killing her Saudi employer — the latest in a string of high-profile cases involving Indonesian migrants.

“As you know, the government is making serious efforts to seek forgiveness from Saudi Arabia and the victim’s family,” Yudhoyono said at the meeting in Hotel Gumaya, in Semarang, Central Java, as quoted by news portal Detik.com.

Satinah Binti Jumadi Ahmad, 41, of Ungaran, Central Java, was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia after admitting to slaying former employer Nura in 2007 and fleeing with 37,970 riyal ($10,125). She is scheduled for execution on April 4 if the Indonesian government cannot collect the proper sum of diyat, or blood money, by that date.

The al-Garib family initially requested 10 million riyal in 2011, but the Indonesian government managed to negotiate the amount to 7 million — with 5 million to be paid now and another two due in the next to years.

The families of Siti Zaenab, Tuti Tursilawati and Karni, all awaiting execution in Saudi prison, were also in attendance at the meeting, as were Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi, Education and Culture Minister Muhammad Nuh, presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha and foreign affairs advisor Daniel Sparingga.

On Friday, Yudhoyono sent an envoy to Saudi Arabia to meet with the al-Garib family before the execution deadline: Head of the task force on migrant worker protection (Satgas TKI) Maftuh Basyuni, accompanied by a team of Foreign Ministry and Manpower Ministry staffers. They delivered the 5 million riyal, according to a report published on the Cabinet Secretary’s official website, setkab.go.id.

Yudhoyono said that 246 Indonesian migrant workers were facing the death penalty abroad, but that 176 had been freed during his time in office.

“We have freed 176 people from death sentences,” he said, according to news portal Detik.com. “That is not a small number considering how hard it is to ask forgiveness for even one person.”

He said that the central government sought clemency for Indonesians facing foreign death sentences as a matter of principle rather than as the result of political pressure.

Satinah’s brother, Paeri Al Fery, expressed gratitude for Yudhoyono’s actions.

“Thank you for your help, mister President,” Paeri said. “Thank you for coming to Semarang. Please pray for us.”

Indonesian migrant workers wait to exit a boat at North Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok
 port in this file photo. The workers were sent home from Saudi Arabia. (JG Photo/
Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)

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Exclusive: 'locked-up' Saudi princesses' message for Obama

Exclusive: 'locked-up' Saudi princesses' message for Obama

Channel 4, Fatima Manji, 28 March 2014

"He should be ashamed to meet a leader that has four grown women locked up" - the message from two Saudi princesses to President Obama as he meets with their father, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

In an exclusive on-camera interview with Channel 4 News, we talk to Princesses Sahar and Jawaher, who say they have been held under effective house arrest, by their father, the king, for more than a decade.

Princesses Sahar and Jawaher are the daughters of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. They say they have been held in the royal compound in Jeddah for the last 13 years, and their sisters Maha and Hala are also being held in separate villas. They claim they are not allowed to travel or leave their home.

If he does that to his own children, how do you think the rest of the country is? - Princess Jawaher

Princesses Sahar and Jawaher claim they have little communication outside of their gates - "no-one is allowed in or out." They say the internet is their only window onto the world. Via Skype, they tell Channel 4 News they are "cut off, isolated... and alone" and that "our father, the king, is responsible."

Their mother Alanoud Al Fayez, who is divorced from the king, first went public with their story two weeks ago, giving her first broadcast interview to Channel 4 News. Since that interview was broadcast, the princesses say restrictions on them have been tightened and they are no longer even allowed to make trips with armed guards for food, as they were previously.

They say food is now becoming scarce in their home, that they are desperate for the world to listen to their story and for someone to help.

Their only hope is that our report will make a difference, and that is why they wanted to broadcast this interview. Princess Sahar says: "This is a risk we're taking, we're happy to do it, we understand full well the repercussions, but we don't know what's going to happen."

Princess Sahar said to reporter Fatima Manji "why are we, grown women, held against our will? I believe we are now hostages."

Her sister, Princess Jawaher, said: "If he does that to his own children, how do you think the rest of the country is?"

The Saudi embassy in London has so far only responded to these claims by saying "this is a private matter".

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US diplomat row overlooks Indian maids' plight

Google – AFP, Rachel O'Brien (AFP), 21 December 2013

Members of The All India Students Federation shout slogans and wave placards

 during a protest in front of the US consulate in Hyderabad on December 19, 

2013 (AFP/File)

Mumbai — Americans were shocked at the alleged $3.31-per-hour wage paid to an Indian diplomat's housekeeper in a case that has sparked global outrage. But to Rupa Thakur, who does the same job in Mumbai, it sounded like a small fortune.

The mother-of-three works 13 hours a day, six days a week for a family in the suburbs of India's financial capital, taking home 8,000 rupees ($130) a month -- or about 38 US cents an hour.

"Life is tough," said Thakur, 39, who moved to the city from Nepal as an uneducated girl to find work.

"After daily expenses and paying my children's school and college fees, I can save only around 2,000 rupees. With everything getting costlier every day, it is difficult for people like us."

India erupted in fury last week over America's strip-search and arrest of an Indian diplomat accused of underpaying her housekeeper. But the story of the maid herself has received far less attention back home.

Domestic service is a prominent feature of life in urban India, with a maid seen as a stamp of middle-class membership. Many of those who can afford it also have drivers, cooks and nannies.

Too many hours, too little cash

Such workers often start as young women or girls, like Thakur, who travel from rural areas to try to make a living and support their families, but who often end up working too many hours for too little cash, activists say.

While New York rigidly enforces laws to ensure even the lowliest employees get no less than $7.25 an hour, such legislation is almost entirely absent for Indian domestic workers.

"They need some kind of standardised wage practice in force," said Mumbai social worker Avisha Kulkarni, who campaigns on the issue.

There are also frequent reports of domestic servants being abused by their wealthy employers.

In November, a New Delhi court ordered an Indian lawmaker and his wife to be held in police custody for allegedly torturing to death a maid at their home.

The case came soon after a teenage maid was rescued from another upscale Delhi home by police and social rights campaigners, who said she had been slashed with knives and mauled by dogs.

The Global Slavery Index, released in October, found an estimated 13.95 million people in India are victims of forced labour -- making up almost half of the world's slave population. Domestic service is a key area of concern.

"The central government has completely ignored the conditions of domestic workers," said Anannya Bhattacharjee, executive council member of the New Trade Union Initiative, who is based in northern Haryana state.

"It's part of Indian feudal tradition. There's always talk of domestic workers being part of the family but they want to be treated as workers," she said.

But there are also signs of change within the industry.

While demand remains high, Kulkarni said fewer women were willing to serve as live-in maids for one household, preferring to work at a number of homes and charge per task, such as cleaning utensils or washing clothes.

"The standard and cost of living has gone up," Kulkarni said, adding that many maids had high aspirations for their children and wanted them well-educated.

"They treat us so rudely"

This was the case for Pushpa Khude, another housekeeper in Mumbai, who financed her two children's college education and whose son is now a bank manager.

Khude, 45, cleans and cooks in several households and takes home 24,000 rupees ($385) a month -- a relatively high sum for her job in India -- after starting work at the age of six watering plants for a Bollywood actor.

Nowadays she only works for expatriates, with no desire to take on Indian employers.

"I'm Indian, but I'm disappointed because other Indians aren't giving us (maids) respect or any responsibility," she said.

"They treat us so rudely and they don't trust us or give us holiday."

US attorney Preet Bharara, the prosecutor who spearheaded Khobragade's arrest proceedings, wondered why there was little concern in India for the maid and her family.

"One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?" he said in comments earlier this week.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, points out that millions of mostly women and girls perform "crucial jobs" around the world as domestic helpers, often enabling employers to pursue careers.

But she said that in India and elsewhere, they remain "among the most exploited", despite a new international treaty adopted in 2011 to improve their rights.

"India should sign the Domestic Workers Convention, encourage domestic workers to organise, and ensure that their complaints of abuse, including sexual abuse, are promptly addressed," Ganguly said.

"Quite often domestic workers fear reprisals and don't come forward with their complaints. Proper witness protection systems should be provided."

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Dignity in Decent Work: Protect Domestic Workers From Abuse

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Domestic workers unite behind international convention

A domestic helper from Mindoro island gathers hanging clothes in Manila on

September 6, 2012 (AFP/File, Jay Direct

Domestic workers unite behind international convention

Google – AFP, 26 October 2013

A domestic helper from Mindoro island gathers hanging clothes in Manila on

September 6, 2012 (AFP/File, Jay Directo)

Montevideo — Unions representing domestic workers met here Saturday to urge countries to ratify a year-old international convention that sets minimal labor standards for domestic workers.

So far only 10 countries have ratified the International Convention on Domestic Workers, which went into effect a year ago in September.

But Myrtle Witbooi, president of the International Domestic Workers Network, said, "We are entering a new era for domestic workers."

Witbooi's organization, which represents 300,000 domestic workers worldwide, is promoting the convention, which gives domestics the right to a minimum wage, daily and weekly rest hours and freedom to choose where they live and how they spend their leave.

"The International Labor Organization convention is for everyone, but if people don't know about it, it can't be invoked," she told AFP.

"We need to educate (workers) and we need to find those countries that don't even have national laws, so they can pass laws and ratify the convention," she said.

Uruguay, which was the first country to ratify the convention in 2012, is hosting the first international conference on domestic work.

"It's already in force here, and has been approved by more than 10 countries, and there are four or five countries in the process of approving it," said Uruguay's Labor Minister Eduardo Brenta.

He said salaries of domestic workers in Uruguay have risen 400 percent over the past eight years, and about 66 percent have a formal status now.

The ILO estimates that domestic workers -- housekeepers, cooks, gardeners, and babysitters -- account for between four and 10 percent of the workforce in developing countries, and 2.5 percent in industrialized countries, or about 52.6 million people overall.

But the ILO believes the numbers employed as domestics could be as high as 100 million people, because of undercounting by some countries.

Reports presented at the conference said 60 percent of under age domestic workers were found in Asia, including an estimated 1.5 million in Indonesia, one million in the Philippines, 420,000 in Bangladesh and 100,000 in Sri Lanka.

Legal protections for domestic workers are minimal in Asia, according to the ILO, which said 797 cases of torture have been reported by media over the past 10 years in Bangladesh.

In Indonesia, 472 cases of violence against domestics have been reported and in Malaysia 13 domestics were killed in 2011 alone.

Moreover, in 97 percent of Asian countries, domestic workers have no legal right to weekly rest or annual vacations.

In Latin America, ILO estimates that there are more than 14 million domestic workers, and that it is the principal occupation of women in the region.

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US Senate passes comprehensive immigration reform

Google - AFP, Michael Mathes (AFP), 28 June 2013

Senators John McCain (L) and Charles Schumer leave a test vote on

Capitol Hill June 27, 2013 in Washington, DC (AFP, Brendan Smialowski)

WASHINGTON — After months of wrangling, the US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed its comprehensive immigration reform bill that aims to put 11 million undocumented people on a path to citizenship.

Chants of "Yes we did!" erupted from the public galleries after senators voted 68-32 to approve the landmark legislation, which bolsters border security, revamps legal immigration and requires a 13-year wait before those without papers can apply for citizenship.

President Barack Obama hailed the vote, saying: "Today, with a strong bipartisan vote, the United States Senate delivered for the American people, bringing us a critical step closer to fixing our broken immigration system once and for all."

Fourteen Republicans joined a unanimous Democratic side in what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid deemed a historic vote, as he took the rare move of calling on members to cast votes from their Senate desks, as Vice President Joe Biden presided over the chamber.

"We've taken giant steps forward towards solving our immigration problem today," an elated Senator Chuck Schumer, one of the four Democrats who crafted the bill with four Republicans in the so-called "Gang of 8," told reporters immediately after the vote.

The measure now faces a rocky road in the Republican-led House of Representatives, but Schumer and Republican Gang of 8 Senator John McCain made a direct appeal to their colleagues on the other side of the US Capitol: work with us to achieve the most important immigration reform in a quarter century.

"To our friends in the House, we ask for your consideration, and we stand ready to sit down and negotiate with you," McCain said.

"We may have different views on different aspects of this issue but we should all of us here have the same goal, and that is to take 11 million people out of the shadows, secure our borders, and make sure this is a nation of opportunity and freedom."

The legislation's authors spent months crafting the 1,000-plus-page document, which pours $46 billion into border security and other efforts, including electronic employment verification and a modernized entry-exit system.

The bill, which had Obama's support, was debated for three weeks on the Senate floor and dozens of amendments were added as Republicans squared off against one another over the merits of the legislation.

"It's been a very tough negotiation," Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu acknowledged. "It's not perfect, but it's balanced."

Obama has said he hopes to sign immigration reform into law this year, but several House Republicans have said the bill will be dead in the water without significant changes, particularly on border security.

"The House is not going to take up and vote on whatever the Senate passes," Republican House Speaker John Boehner told reporters, noting that House members would put together their own language for legislation that would work its way through committee and eventually to the floor.

Senator Chuck Grassley, an adamant opponent of the Senate bill, said he wants to eventually agree on a better bill, adding he is counting on the House to pass legislation that is "much more tough."

"Hopefully I'll have a vote to send to the president," Grassley said.

Sri Lanka to ban women from being maids abroad: minister

The Daily Star, AFP, January 24, 2013

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks and their supporters march outside the president's
 residence demanding authorities to stop sending Sri Lankan women as maids
 to the Middle East following the recent beheading of a Sri Lankan maid by Saudi
Arabia, during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/
Eranga Jayawardena)

                            

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka said on Thursday it would bar women of all ages from travelling abroad to work in menial jobs, following an international outcry over the beheading of a young nanny in Saudi Arabia.

Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella announced that women under 25 were now banned from going to the Arab state to work as maids, adding that it was the first step towards a worldwide travel ban for low-paying jobs.

The move was in response to the execution earlier this month at a prison in Riyadh of Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafik, who was only 17 when she was charged with smothering a four-month-old baby in Saudi Arabia in 2005.

"As a first step we are raising the age limit to 25. We will gradually move towards a total ban on our women going abroad to do low-paying jobs," Rambukwella told reporters.

He did not say by when the total ban would kick in, but said the authorities have started to discourage women from going to the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia where most maids are paid less than $300 a month.

Nafik was beheaded after she was found guilty of smothering an infant in her care after an argument with the child's mother, the Saudi interior ministry has said.

The US and the United Nations led international condemnation of the Saudi authorities over the January 9 execution.

Nearly 1.7 million Sri Lankans are employed abroad and the $6 billion they sent home last year is a key source of foreign exchange for the government.

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Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek 'executed in Saudi Arabia'

BBC News, 9 January 2013

The parents of Ms Nafeek had repeatedly appealed to King Abdullah
to pardon her

Related Stories

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Saudi Arabia has executed a Sri Lankan domestic worker for killing a baby in her care in 2005, a foreign ministry official in Colombo has told the BBC.

The maid, Rizana Nafeek, had denied killing the four-month-old boy.

Her supporters say she was only 17 at the time of the killing. They say her execution is a breach of international child rights.

The Sri Lankan parliament held a minute's silence on Wednesday in honour of Ms Nafeek.

An MP who campaigns for Sri Lankan workers abroad, Ranjan Ramanayake, described the Saudi government as "dictators" who would never execute Europeans or Americans, only Asians and Africans.

The parents of Ms Nafeek had repeatedly appealed to King Abdullah to pardon her.

She was convicted in 2007 of murdering a four-month-old baby she was caring for in 2005.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticised the Saudi authorities for their handling of the case, as have campaigners in Sri Lanka, who argue that there were serious translation problems at the time she confessed to the crime.

They also argue that they she did not always have access to a lawyer, and that her reported execution breaches the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which Saudi Arabia has ratified.

There has been no comment so far from Saudi Arabia.

Demonstrators hold up an image of Rizana Nafeek as they shout

 slogans during a protest against her execution, in Colombo January

11, 2013. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

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Arab governments are failing on human trafficking

The poor record of Middle Eastern countries on trafficking stems from the primacy given to protecting regimes over individuals

guardian.co.uk, Brian Whitaker, Tuesday 28 June 2011

Hillary Clinton speaks at the Interagency Task Force on human trafficking.
The US global report for 2011 has been released. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Efforts to combat human rights abuses are easily undermined by politics. Often – and with good reason – the US and other western countries are accused of highlighting abuses by their enemies while turning a blind eye to similar abuses by their friends.

One way of pushing political considerations into the background is to look at the problem comparatively, by considering where each country stands in relation to others. That is what the US state department has been doing for 11 years now, with its global reports on human trafficking.

The result, as seen in the latest report issued on Monday, is a robust critique, which places some of the staunchest US allies – Kuwait and Saudi Arabia – in the same rotten boat as long-time foes such as Cuba, North Korea and Iran.

"Trafficking in persons" covers various forms of exploitation including, in the words of the international Palermo protocol, "sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs".

The state department's report divides countries into three categories according to their performance. In the top tier are those that fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. In the second tier are those that do not fully comply but "are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance" and the bottom tier is for those that "neither satisfy the minimum standards nor demonstrate a significant effort to come into compliance".

The second tier also includes a watch list of countries "requiring special scrutiny". Countries in the bottom tier may be subjected to certain kinds of sanctions.

This year, two countries – Portugal and the Slovak Republic – have moved up into the top tier and 19 have been taken off the watch list. Nine others have been moved on to the watch list and 11 have slipped into the bottom tier.

The bottom tier has grown rapidly over the last three years, from 14 countries in 2008 to 23 today. Just over a third of these are Arab or Middle Eastern countries. Iran, Kuwait, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and Sudan have been joined this year by Algeria, Lebanon, Libya and Yemen, and four others are on the watch list: Iraq, Qatar, Syria and Tunisia. No Middle Eastern country figures in the top tier.

A large part of the problem in the wealthier Arab countries is the extensive use of foreign labour – especially those employed in domestic service, construction and sanitation. Referring to Kuwait, the report says:

• "Although most of these migrants enter Kuwait voluntarily, upon arrival some are subjected to conditions of forced labour by their sponsors and labour agents, including nonpayment of wages, long working hours without rest, deprivation of food, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and restrictions on movement, such as the withholding of passports or confinement to the workplace."

It continues:

• "Kuwait's sponsorship law effectively dissuades workers from reporting abuse by their sponsors to government authorities; workers who abscond from their sponsors face criminal and financial penalties of up to six months' imprisonment, over $2,000 in fines and deportation for leaving without their employers' permission, even if they ran away due to abuse by the sponsor."

It's a similar picture in Saudi Arabia, where workers who complain to the police about abuse may find themselves returned to their employers or pressured into dropping charges.

"Some employers file false counter-claims against foreign workers for theft, witchcraft, and adultery in retaliation for workers' claims of abuse," the report says. "As a result, in many cases, the workers rather than the employers are punished, which discourages workers from reporting abuse."

Saudi Arabia is also accused of failing to take action to reduce the demand for prostitution or child sex tourism by Saudi nationals or even to acknowledge "that trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation was a problem affecting the kingdom".

Unlike torture, say, and arbitrary arrest, trafficking in persons is a human rights abuse perpetrated by societies rather than governments but it is one that governments should take steps to prevent. In some parts of the region – Yemen, for example – constant turmoil and the limited capabilities of government make prevention difficult. But Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have no such excuse: they lack the will to deal with the problem, or at least to give it any kind of priority.

That, in turn, stems from a wider problem that has plagued the region for decades: a philosophy of government that is more about ensuring the survival of the regime than serving the needs of the public or protecting the weaker elements in their societies.

The Arab spring has provided a sharp reminder that these regimes must do more for their own citizens, or risk the consequences, but the impoverished foreigners – who in many cases keep these countries running – are still treated as inferior beings whose rights count for little or nothing.

Related Article:

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Beatings instead of wages - domestic helpers in the diplomatic service

Deutsche Welle, 27 June 2011

Seeking a better life - maids from
Indonesia

A Saudi diplomat in Berlin is said to have maltreated his Indonesian domestic helper. A 50-year-old international convention guaranteeing diplomatic immunity means the attache will not face legal consequences.

Dewi Ratnasari left her home in Indonesia in hopes of a better life. Via Saudi Arabia, she travelled to Germany, where she started to work as a domestic helper for the family of a Saudi-Arabian diplomat in Berlin in April 2009.

She did not find a better life. Later, she told authorities that she was forced to hand over her passport, was not allowed to leave the house alone and was prohibited to get in touch with her family. She worked up to 18 hours daily in the diplomat's large household. She slept on the bare floor in one of the children's bedrooms.

Ratnasari - not her real name but a pseudonym - managed to escape in the fall of 2010, and showed up on the doorstep of Ban Ying, a Berlin based, city-funded human rights association founded in 1988 as a shelter and counseling center for migrant women from Southeast Asia. The center deals with up to ten cases a year from among the 249 domestic helpers currently employed by diplomats in Germany.

Ban Ying's Nivedita Prasad told Deutsche Welle that the Indonesian woman is an example of particularly shoddy treatment. The entire family regularly slapped the 30-year-old Indonesian household help, beat her with objects, humiliated her and insulted her. "The worst part is that they never called her by her name, but by the Arabic word for 'shit,'" Prasad said.

Exploitation is not isolated

Nevedita Prasad of Ban Ying, the
Thai term for 'House of Women'

NGOs across Europe are aware of the problem of exploitation of domestic help in diplomatic households. A common complaint is that employees are forced to work long hours without extra pay and that they have signed what amounts to a virtually worthless work contract.

Maltreating and locking up domestic help is regarded as a grave human rights abuse and a breach of the ban on slavery. In many European countries, stressful working conditions and measly pay violate both human rights and national legislation.

But the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations guarantees diplomats and their personnel legal immunity. Diplomats are immune from civil or criminal prosecution and no German civil court is allowed to, for example, require a diplomat to pay lost wages to an employee.

"This immunity blocks the legal process for domestic help in diplomatic households," Heike Raabe of the German Institute for Human Rights said. "It's a gap in the protection of human rights at the expense of women, who usually take on such jobs because of economic hardship."

Under the Vienna Convention, Dewi Ratnasari could have taken her employer to court in Saudi Arabia - in theory. In reality, according to Heike Raabe, that is impossible because of her gender, her family background, a lack of resources and visa limitations. "Without a male escort, women are forbidden to travel to or within Saudi Arabia. They also have to be accompanied by a man in court," she said.

Unrealistic legal claims

Ban Ying contacted the German Foreign Ministry, in the hope that it would negotiate compensation for Dewi Ratnasari, in exchange for a commitment not to go public about the case. But the sum the Saudi embassy offered was "outrageously low," said Nivesita Prasad.

Bertelsmann is up against slavery
and exploitation of foreign domestic
help

The Institute and other organizations helped to bring the case to trial, hiring labor lawyer Klaus Bertelsmann to take Dewi Ratnasari's case to Berlin's Labor Court. He filed a criminal complaint on the grounds of human trafficking and claimed 70.000 euros ($99,310) in back wages, overtime and compensation for personal suffering. On June 14, the court ruled against the complainant, citing her employer's diplomatic immunity.

Dewi Ratnasari has meanwhile returned to her native Indonesia. Ban Ying organized a fundraiser so she would not have to go home empty-handed, but she officially passed on her wage entitlement to Heide Pfarr, a women's rights activist who continues to act for her as claimant.

Lawyer Bertelsmann said he is appealing the Labor Court's ruling, and is confident of a solution along the lines of a ruling in a similar case earlier this year by France's top administrative court, which said that the state must pick up the tab for the foreign employee's back wages.

It can take up to six months before the next higher German court rules on Dewi Ratnasari's claim, but diplomats will in any case go scot free despite continuing human rights abuses and slavery practices.

But the situation will not be changed unless the 192 signatory states to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations decide to do so.

Author: Ulrike Mast-Kirschning / db

Editor: Michael Lawton

Martin Kuebler

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