ILO, Global Network, International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN), in collaboration with KSPSI, KSBSI, KSPI confederations in Indonesia, Domestic Worker advocates Jala PRT and Jakerla PRT, co-organised with Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) to gather domestic workers groups, trade unions, labour organisations and women’s NGOs in Jakarta to discuss the results of the 2010 International Labour [...]

As a maid working in Saudi Arabia, Lahanda Purage Ariyawathie suffered at the hands of her Saudi employer and his wife, who skewered her body with at least 24 nails and needles (pictured). Her case was unusually brutal, but the abuse of domestic workers in the Middle East is all too common. Huge numbers of [...]

Protesters gathered outside the Embassy for Saudi Arabia on 30th August, on behalf of L.G Ariyawathie, the Sri Lankan maid who had 23 nails hammered into her body by her Saudi employers. The protesters called for an end to the torture being faced by Sri Lanka workers in foreign countries and asked that migrant worker rights be [...]

Mrs. L.T. Ariyawathi (49), a mother of three has returned from Saudi Arabia after less than five months of employment. Within a short time of her return she was hospitalized for an operation to remove 24 nails from her foot and a needle implanted by her employer. Doctors who x-rayed her at Kamburupitiya hospital have [...]

 A group of migrant workers in Hong Kong, including Filipinos, lambasted the Legislative Council’s (LegCo) final vote against the inclusion of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in the statutory minimum wage. “Slavery, marginalization and discrimination have now been put into law in HK. There is neither justice nor democracy in the Legislative Council’s (LegCo) vote against [...]

For Immediate release. 10 June 2010 Indonesia must enact Domestic Workers Protection Law now Committee for Asian Women calls on the Indonesian parliament to prioritise the deliberation and enactment of the Domestic Workers Protection Bill of 2010, submitted to the House of Representatives in 2009 for the purpose of recognising legal rights of domestic workers [...]

The abuse of domestic workers, the majority of whom are women, is still widespread in South Africa despite calls for the government to intensify the implementation of the domestic workers law. The Sectoral Determination 7: Domestic Worker Sector law, which was promulgated in 2002, set minimum wages and conditions such as working hours, leave days [...]

Jakarta – Not all domestic workers in Indonesia are as lucky as Inem, Indonesia’s favorite maid in Nya Abbas Akub’s 1976 blockbuster comedy Inem Pelayan Seksi (Inem, the sexy maid), who ended up marrying her employer’s boss and living happily ever after. In fact, Inem did much to romanticize the life of domestic workers, just [...]

JEDDAH: There is a move on the part of Saudi authorities to stop housemaids coming from certain countries. “We are serious in imposing a ban on the import of housemaids from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam,” said Ali Al-Quraishi, vice president of the local Labor Recruitment Committee. “The main reason for considering such a [...]

CARAM Asia Critique of the 3rd Global Forum on Migration and Development Athens, Greece 4th-5th November 2009 As governments from around the world convene for the third annual Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) many in the civil society sector continue to question the credibility of the forum as a valid platform capable of [...]