There is no better example than Iran. The Iranian government is not a victim of this, they deserve any revealing coverage that comes their way. It’s a country that thrives on its own people’s blood and by executing people at such a fast rate that it’s difficult to be shocked or even shaken by such news anymore. People hear about it so often that it’s numbing. They hear about it mostly because it’s accessible. U.S and Israeli media report it every day as a strategy to empower itself. It’s a brutal psychological war that uses real lives and real personal stories, real people, to give itself more power. The more it happens, the more they celebrate it. It shows from their energetic coverage of such news. For their convenience, such news helps to divert your attention away from their own crimes and their own dirty games that play a big role in today’s political and human rights crisis across our countries. Protesters shot and killed in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain? Move along people, nothing to see here.

Many of my activist friends in Iran share this same feeling. These governments (also oppressive) taking advantage of these activists who risk their own freedoms to expose these stories and who, as a consequence, have to witness these stories being used against them. We all know that the U.S and Israel, and their allies, have no interest in human rights and in us as human beings. They have an interest in their political and economic status, and to maintain Israel’s role as a superpower in the region, one that also thrives on blood and murder. But the U.S regards that as “necessary crimes” for Israel’s “survival,” though Iran and Syria can claim the same thing. They kill for the survival of their current government and current structure and to protect the current people in power. You can justify anything if you try to and sometimes it would even make sense, it just would never be right. Especially if it means you end up putting even more people in danger than they already were, which is what both the U.S and Israel are doing with its narrow coverage.

Some people ask why others are so focused on Israel when there are crimes happening in their own countries or other neighboring ones. The answer is that coverage of these issues gets in the wrong hands all too often. These are powerful hands who call the shots (literally.) In one instance you still want the entire world to know what crimes your government is committing and in another you don’t want to empower occupying and imperialist forces to use that as justice for their interference. A lot of people feel that the latter is an important struggle because the human rights movements feels incomplete without it.

Unfortunately for us, this will happen regardless of our fight against it. That doesn’t mean we can sit back and watch it happen, but we should expose it and discourage it and even refrain from speaking with certain journalists at certain papers and state our reasons why so that they understand that we’re not going to help their agendas that are in direct competition with ours. And our agenda is the simplest demand that is the hardest to fight for: to be free. Free from tyrannical regimes and free from occupying foreign forces.

I’m not saying we should provide a one-sided view about maids in the Gulf. Complaints will exist and some are legitimate. However, journalists, columnists, bloggers and editors need to be extremely alert and cautious about how they are framing these issues. Maids lack a lot of legal rights in our countries, thanks in part to the sponsorship system which leaves them completely vulnerable to abuse, but they also suffer from a considerable amount of racist discrimination throughout our societies. Look no further than an average mall or an airport anywhere from Doha to Manama to witness the despicable treatment of South Asian workers. It’s common enough that it’s impossible to deny.

We need to highlight our outrage to these editors who don’t know any better than to publish this propaganda that seemingly encourage racism and normalizes classism. Why push for the idea that maids are “pampered” when they have incredibly demanding jobs under little to no protection? Why complain about the expenses involved in hiring a maid when they get the least amount of compensation which amount to nothing in comparison to the average salary in the Gulf? And more importantly, why amplify these self-absorbed voices instead of the voices of victims and their families that are barely recognized? Thousands of families are still demanding justice for their siblings, mothers, fathers, sons or daughters who have disappeared without trace upon arriving to our countries. They are forgotten and dismissed.

In a previous article I took similar issue with one of the other pieces published by this same paper. Sadly other local papers appear to have been inspired to be following a similar trend. This is a grave problem.

For a publication called Emirates 24/7 the editors should consider creating a section to discuss the “24/7 workers” who work insane hours on a daily basis to provide for complete strangers, sometimes under deplorable conditions. They spend years doing this. Some don’t come out of it alive. Some take their own lives. Some patiently go through each day despite not having their salaries paid on time or in full. Some get beaten to death. Some get raped.

This isn’t to generalize and claim that all domestic workers go through these issues, but they do happen in such frequency that we should be alarmed and informed enough to take action. We should never dismiss these as the “few” cases – there’s enough of these cases that makes this OUR problem. Every single week for an entire year there’s one story after another about these incidents and yet the outcry remains largely invisible particularly in these media outlets, who instead publish these horrid stories about maids being “pampered.”

So I have a few questions for Shuchita Kapur, one of the authors of such offensive and unnecessary op-ed pieces. You think it’s tough having to “pamper” a maid? Having to provide for her the way she gave up years of her life to provide for you? Having to grant this individual who catered to your every need a decent request? Go through one day as a maid and I assure you, you will never complain again. I’m confident it will change the tone of your stories when you realize the challenges and physical/psychological pressures involved in the job. When you are turned away from public spaces, mocked, dismissed, and harassed because the entire community around you deems you so pitiful to the point of worthlessness. When the idea of reuniting with your family is a distant dream that may or may never happen depending on nothing but pure “luck” because your protection is never guaranteed.

Shuchita, I doubt you have the strength required to endure this pain.

It might appear from the influx of tragic stories that these maids are weak and helpless. Make no mistake in assuming that. Most have the inspiring courage, determination, and patience necessary to survive decades of abuse, imprisoned in a household where they are taken advantage of, mistreated and never appreciated, all the while missing out on watching their own families grow. How many of us can go through that?

It’s time for us to urgently take a stance against trivializing abuse of migrant workers in the media.

The 6 to 5 ruling late Wednesday comes after months of the court being under unprecedented attack from legislators in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party for—in their view—being too liberal and interventionist on human rights issues.

Citing security concerns, the justices upheld a 2003 provision that has led to draconian limits on family reunification and is believed to have prevented thousands of West Bank Palestinians from living with their spouses inside Israel. The provision was passed at the height of the second intifada uprising, when attacks on Israeli targets were frequent. It was later expanded to include spouses from enemy states such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.

”Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide,” wrote Asher Grunis, who is about to become president of the court, in his opinion. Mr. Grunis argued that striking down the law would bring about the entry of thousands of Palestinian spouses and that the state could not take the risk that some would engage in terrorism and cause loss of life.
Human rights groups argue that Israeli law grants all citizens the right to family life and equality and that few Palestinian spouses have been involved in violence. But upholding those rights goes against the current mood in the Knesset and public, explained liberal legislator Nitzan Horowitz. ”There is an ill wind blowing from the Knesset and the judges are influenced by the harsh public atmosphere,” he said.

The court decision makes life more precarious for couples already living in Israel in which one partner comes from the West Bank. In recent years, the Israeli interior ministry allowed West Bank spouses to stay if they were males over 35 or females over 25 and not considered a security threat. These spouses are not allowed to work or even drive, and have to renew their permits every few months.

The gnawing fear now is that in the wake of the supreme court decision, the spouses’ permits will not be renewed.”This would separate our family into two parts,” said Tayseer Khatib, an Israeli Arab anthropology professor whose wife, Lana, comes from the West Bank city of Jenin. ”I will take responsibility for the kids if we have to separate. Lana will go to Jenin and I will stay in Acre with the kids.” The two fell in love when Tayseer conducted academic research in Jenin and met Lana, who moved to Acre six years ago. They have a four year old boy, Adnan and a three year old girl, Yusra. Tayseer says his leaving Acre to join Lana in Jenin would be out of the question, since he does not want to repeat the events of 1948, when thousands of Palestinians fled Acre under Jewish military pressure at Israel’s establishment.

A dissenting justice, Edmund Levy, warned that upholding the law was a negative turning point in the history of Israeli democracy.

According to the court ruling, about 135,000 Palestinians were granted Israeli citizenship through marriage between 1994 and 2002. Twenty percent of Israel’s citizens are Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who did not flee or were not expelled during Israel’s establishment in 1948. They frequently intermarry with Palestinians from the West Bank.

The commemoration was filled with formative and heated discussions with contents ranging from academic, ethnic and religious perspectives.

Among the contributors was Laween Atroshi, a 22 year old British Kurd and Peace ambassador. Here he discusses the successful and applause worthy developments the Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq has made thus far in its running. Laween raises points such as our strong education system, and the legal laws implemented within the region which condemn honour crimes and honour killings as well as other acts of human injustice.

He also mentions and makes a request for the UK Labour Party to consider Kurdistan’s cause and struggle for independence and the not so long-ago history of our Halabja genocide.

Laween Atroshi on Kurdistan’s Rights & Development

]]> http://www.mideastyouth.com/2011/12/29/kurds-human-rights-talk-uk/feed/ 0 House of Lords,Human Rights Commemoration,Kurdish Youth,Kurdistan,Kurds,london,UK Human Rights Day 2011 was warmly welcomed in London's House of Lords where a board of delegates came together from across Europe in discussion and reflection of the developments and progress made within the global community on the agenda of human right... Human Rights Day 2011 was warmly welcomed in London's House of Lords where a board of delegates came together from across Europe in discussion and reflection of the developments and progress made within the global community on the agenda of human rights. The commemoration was filled with formative and heated discussions with contents ranging from academic, ethnic and religious perspectives. Among the contributors was Laween Atroshi, a 22 year old British Kurd and Peace ambassador. Here he discusses the successful and applause worthy developments the Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq has made thus far in its running. Laween raises points such as our strong education system, and the legal laws implemented within the region which condemn honour crimes and honour killings as well as other acts of human injustice. He also mentions and makes a request for the UK Labour Party to consider Kurdistan's cause and struggle for independence and the not so long-ago history of our Halabja genocide. Laween Atroshi on Kurdistan's Rights & Development Mideast Youth no http://www.mideastyouth.com/2011/12/15/we-wont-accept-racism-against-migrant-workers-in-the-media-as-the-norm/ http://www.mideastyouth.com/2011/12/15/we-wont-accept-racism-against-migrant-workers-in-the-media-as-the-norm/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:05:20 +0000 Esra'a (Bahrain) http://www.mideastyouth.com/?p=14248 It does not take a vast amount of research to quickly arrive at the conclusion that Gulf countries suck at protecting migrant worker rights. The frequency in which abuses occur has gone from alarming to downright revolting. On a weekly basis there are many reports of suicide, murder, rape, torture, imprisonments without trials – and that’s not counting those incidents that remain undocumented. Horror stories that remain untold.

And yet it’s deeply disturbing that racism and discrimination in some Gulf papers do not raise any red flags amongst its editors. Some even get away with portraying maids as killers without much of an outcry. Is it because it has become common knowledge?

Inserting “Kuwait maid” on a Google search results in a viral video titled “Maid Stealing from wallet (Kuwait). BEWARE!!” – it has been viewed almost half a million times. Emirates 24/7 recently published this piece, titled: Five signs to spot a maid about to abscond.

The five signs? Your maid acting like a perfectly normal human being:

1) What if the maid is using a mobile phone? Perhaps to connect with the family that she is deprived from seeing or having any other form of communication with. For years. But wait, no! Can’t be. She is most likely conspiring with others to run away and leave you to clean your own damned dishes. “BEWARE!!”

2) Is your maid going outside? Maybe for some fresh air? Unbelievable! She needs air? Fuck off!

3) Your maid is sick? No. YOU’RE sick. For believing that she’s sick. She can’t be. She’s a maid. She needs to work. No sick days off. Get it done. Not gonna pay it min-wage for nothing. What’s the worst that can happen? She dies? Order another of her kind.

4) Buying travel bags. Or any kind of bags. Or food or water or any other necessities. Buying anything. Everything she needs is available. She really doesn’t need much. Just a uniform and like, a banana or something.

5) Meeting old and new friends during her weekly holiday. Oh wait, WHAT HOLIDAY? Who is she meeting? They’re conspiring to steal the house. The cars. Maybe even the husband? No way! Lock her in the room. Maids only need one friend. It’s called a broom.

In all seriousness, why should these be signs for anything other than having certain rights that can amount to a somewhat better life. None of these signs are anything short of completely reasonable.

It’s clear that the authorities do not take it seriously when a worker is killed or investigates causes of suicide, which persist at alarming rates. But a worker commits a crime and it’s frontpage material – meetings are immediately held to discuss collective punishments, often resulting in racist generalizations and further discriminatory policies that punishes not just the the worker who commits the crime but all other maids from that particular country or maids in general. As an example, look no further than this case.

Of course some maids commit crimes. That’s terrible. However, it’s not right to deny that the ratio is far less in comparison to the maids who return to their countries with their bodies completely disfigured beyond recognition – or the number of maids who don’t make it out of our countries alive.

Really, who needs to send the warnings to whom? Who really needs to “BEWARE!!”?

There are many steps to be taken to prevent this endless cycle of migrant rights violations – but amongst the first steps is to stop trivializing abuse and recognizing the simple fact that maids have human needs that must be respected and protected as well.

Migrants in Libya face uncertain future:

A recent U.N. report estimates that over 7,000 prisoners remain detained in Libya. A substantial percentage of these men, women, and children are sub-Saharan African migrants caught up in the volatile transition of power. Accounts of arbitrary arrest and torture have been documented by human rights agencies throughout the revolution.
Read more.

Murder in Kuwait:

An Ethiopian maid was murdered by her employer on Tuesday. The man beat her for over a week because she allegedly refused to work, and her injuries were so severe that she suffered from internal bleeding. She collapsed after arguing with the man while he attempted to “return” her to the recruitment office.
Read more.

Lebanon: Suicide of an Ethiopian Domestic Worker in Tyr:

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, an Ethiopian worker, Janet M. K., hung herself today using a laundry rope from the ceiling of the house of her employer in Bazourieh in Tyr, South Lebanon.
Read more.

All Eyes on Rizana Nafeek:

Saudi Arabia is set to behead another migrant worker unless Sri Lanka can persuade authorities to grant Rizana Nafeek amnesty. Media outlets worldwide are monitoring the story closely as part of the mounting attention Saudi’s policies have received since the June execution of Ruyati Binti Sapubi.
Read more.

Indonesia reevaluates bans, Saudi Arabia & related policies:

The Philippine’s 41-country ban (and subsequent deferral) made a splash last week, sparking discourse among different government agencies, migrants, and activist organizations. Though critics deemed the measures superficial, the sheer number of countries blacklisted have invigorated demands for more action from other nations. The Indonesian government subsequently responded to queries regarding recent changes to its own migration policies; Commentators speculate that the five month moratorium on labor export seems to have been lifted following informal agreements between the two nations.
Read more here and here.

Trivializing Abuse:

Headlines involving domestic workers in the Gulf often fall into one of two categories: the horrifying or the ‘quirky.’ Reactions to the former – a maid raped, a woman tortured and enslaved – are instantaneous: absolute revulsion. But condemnation of the latter is less apparent, less certain. The absurdity of these stories – for example, an employer complaining about a maid using her cell phone – appears somewhat lighthearted. Wrong, but essentially harmless; perhaps the product of a “funny” law, another oddity of the intersection between the Gulf’s culture and legal system.
Read more.

Perceptions & Rights in Lebanon:

Recent events in Lebanon illustrate the importance of social perceptions to migrant rights. An anonymous Lebanese resident is tackling the disparaging conception of road cleaners; the designer by trade has posted signs throughout Lebanese streets asking citizens to respect the Sukleen street cleaners, most of whom are migrant workers.
Read more.

Murder of a Kuwaiti woman may have lasting effects on migrants:

The murder of a Kuwaiti bride by her Ethiopian maid may have reverberating consequences for the nation’s migrants. The Ministry of Health intends to introduce a set of psychological evaluations that prospective foreigner workers must pass before their work visas are approved, adding to the already extensive and expensive medical procedures migrants are required to take.
Read more.

“Workers Emirates”:

WIth his lens, Chancel captures the Gulf’s theoretical ‘underside’, the part so visible yet so often excluded from the glossy magazine features and brochures.
Read more.

Embassy Acts as Sanctuary for Absconding Citizens:

Kuwaiti authorities are receiving complaints about an unnamed African Embassy protecting citizens that have absconded from their employers. Absconding, which involves leaving an employer in some manner without their consent, is a criminal offense under the Kuwaiti sponsorship system.
Read more.

Family of a maid who died in Jordan demanding investigation:

The family of Subhani M Lurdu, a Sri Lankan maid who reportedly died on the 17th of October during her employment in Jordan, is requesting an investigation. They’re also requesting that her body is sent back to Sri Lanka.
Read more.

Suicide of Detained Migrant Prompts Investigation:

The suicide of an Indonesian maid in Kuwaiti custody is drawing questions about the conditions of her imprisonment.The woman hung herself with her scarf, her severed neck indicating that she had not been checked up on for days. Current accounts of the case are conflicting; one reports that security officials attempted to save the woman, while another raises accusations of the neglect.
Read more.

UN urges Lebanon to Protect Domestic Workers:

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on modern day slavery is urging Lebanon to address the plight of its domestic workers. Gulnara Shahinian recounted conditions of the migrants she met in Lebanon; sexual abuse, contract violations, unfair hours, and domestic servitude regularly punctuated their experiences.
Read more.

For ongoing updates, follow us on Twitter @MigrantRights or on Facebook.

Our brains molded in such a way,
As someone smoke and butt in ash tray,
We have got diseases sow in our life,
They sowed and they watered,
But who knows,

It’s neither a magic nor a miracle,
It’s a preplanned game as solitaire,
Behind each face there are faces,
Look different, observe differently,
But who knows,

Our dreams and our wishes are artificial,
They prepare and control it, for their beneficial,
Our mind worked in one direction,
The path they made and are taking to hell,
But who knows,

Please watch and share this video widely. Special thanks to Farah Salka from the Migrant Workers Task Force for her assistance.

To understand the severity of the situation, you can follow @MigrantRights on Twitter, which contains constant updates of migrant rights abuses in the region as well as this page on CrowdVoice:

Don’t forget to connect with us on Facebook:

I think I started reading psychology in the year 2000 when I was about 15 years old. Psychology helped me a lot in understanding motives and ways of thinking of others, so that was a great help to me in my political activism. Also, a book I read before, about psychology of militarists for Sigmund Freud,, helped me dealing with militarists in my struggle for peace and non-violence. My activism led me to jail, so I thought to use the wasted time here in making a field study doing some psychological analysis for criminals jailed with me. I’ll try to summarize my major notices, categorize them, even knowing that these information could have been written before by researchers on criminology and psychology, but I believe that adding a new field-study from a prison in Egypt, made by a prisoner could be of a positive value.
* Sample of study
- About 30 prisoners (drug dealers, thugs, robbers, killers)
All came by military trials

1- Denial
* Denial was the greatest psychopath. I saw here criminals are living in a parallel world, different from reality.
* Nearly, every prisoner believes that he is innocent, everyone denies his crime. For moments, I felt that I’m the only one made things against the law. Some people claim that they didn’t commit their crime, but police faked the case to harm them. Others don’t see anything wrong with their crimes; just as the drug dealer who says that there is nothing wrong in selling narcotics (even he knows that it causes harm). Also, the killer who sees that it was a normal reaction from him to kill the person who insulted him or tried to get close to one of his females.
* One of the prisoners usually says “I believe that God would stand with me, because I didn’t harm anybody ever in my life”… This man killed, injured, hostaged, was jailed in lots of countries for more than 25 years and was active in trading drugs in more than 5 countries, in Europe and Middle East!
* As being with a group came by military trials in a very exceptional time, this made us very interested to follow the political news. Everyone was hoping that a political change could happen, leading to canceling military trials and freeing them. They can’t accept the idea that they harmed innocent people and deserve to be punished and rehabilitated in jail to be good citizens… But, look at it from another view, I, myself, don’t believe that I’m guilty, I don’t believe that I made anything wrong and I intend to continue my activism when I be released!

2- Schizophrenia
* Denial leads to having two identities; real one outside the prison and the other identity is the innocent one inside the jail and in front of investigators.
* I noticed also that most of criminals have two or three names. It’s common in Egypt to have two names (without a noticeable cause for that), but criminals have lots of names for lots of purposes. They use this variety to run from investigations and trials (as an accusation to Mr. A doesn’t lead to accusing Mr. B, when the investigator doesn’t know that Mr. A is Mr. B). Having two names helps them to hide their crimes from their families or any other people they don’t want them to know about their crimes. Also, having two names helps them escape from police officers and secret service.
* The direct result of having two names is having two identities (personalities) and you can be surprised at any second of changing in manners of the man in front of you. He just switches between both of them or switch on and off the other identity he doesn’t want to show in jail.
* Practically, when you deal with them, you find some of them faithful, religious, courageous, slightly enlightened… etc. But, all of that can change in seconds to see a selfish bloody person, full of hatred.
* Prisoners are also pretending all the time; pretending being rich is a common thing here. Lots of prisoners here pretend to be millionaires, they act as if they are going to buy you and your family. By time, you discover that they are poor people. Even if you didn’t get information proving they aren’t rich as they claim, their way dealing with money and how they fight for small and cheap things, make you believe that those people can’t have the amount of money they claim.

3- Lying
* Prisoners lie just for lying. One of them says a piece of a poet every day (the same piece); a part of it says, “tell me about prisoners and their lies; tell me about lies which run in their views”… Also, this man claims that he never lies, even though he lies every second!
* Prisoners don’t lie for a logical cause, they are just used to giving wrong answers as a normal reflex. They also feel power in deceiving others. They keep telling opposite (contradicting) stories about their lives. They tell false names for their sons. They could even claim of being sons of families, other than their true families.
* Dealing with prisoners taught me that you should believe that he is lying until he proves the opposite. You can’t deal with them as if they are telling they truth.

4- Ego
* Prisoners have enlarged egos. I think that the ego is the cause of all crimes. The man who kills another man because of a couple of words, the ego forced him to kill. The same with stealers and rapists. Ego is the mother of all crimes.
* The criminal doesn’t understand the idea of having borders between him and others. He sees it’s normal to interfere in others’ lives, insult them, use them, make fun of them, on the other hand, he can’t accept being treated the same way.
* Criminals also don’t believe in private property. When he sees something he likes, he just goes on and takes it (without a permission from its owner) and he doesn’t see something wrong with this. That’s why stealers don’t see something wrong in taking others’ money.
* Ego of criminals also gives them the impression that they have the right to use others and use them as slaves. When he wants something, he just orders any weak prisoner to do it. You need to have also an enlarged psycho-pathetic ego to make them fear you, and so fear of treating you the same way.

5- Complicated relation with religion
* I think this could be part of the schizophrenic point, but it has notices which should be focused on.
* Criminals have very fantastic opinions. They don’t see that Bin Laden did anything wrong. They don’t respect Jews or Christians in general (even though they respected me, thinking I’m a Christian). They hare non-believers and atheists. They are ready to kill or injure anyone telling them a bad opinion about their religion.
At the same time, they don’t pray nor fast. Their crimes (killing, injuring, stealing) are banned in their religions and they don’t see anything wrong in committing them. They use narcotics everyday, even they believe it’s forbidden by God.
* Criminals also are superstitious. They believe that dreams are messages from God which will come true. They feel good or bad when they hear specific types of birds. They believe in ghosts. They also believe in lots of myths not related to Islam.

6- Self-hatred
* This gets on surface when he is weak. It becomes obvious that he hates his life, his principles, may be even himself.
* When someone emotionally close to him tells him bad news, talk to him hardly, he starts blaming everyone led him to that crime, takes decisions to stop making crimes when he is released. Deep inside, he wishes if he had a different (regular/normal) life. Maybe, the hard time we live here in jail is the cause which makes him hates his crimes.

7- Sex-phobia and homophobia
* I believe it’s normal to be a homosexual when you are forced to live years without seeing a female. But, even if it’s spontaneous and good for them, they are still homophobic. When they know about a gay prisoner, they start insulting and beating him.
* But, this behavior isn’t related only to homosexual behavior, they nearly do the same thing towards whoever they know that he masturbates or owns sexual pictures with him.
* Schizophrenically, they like to talk a lot about their sexual adventures, with stimulant sexual details!

8- Continuous making of troubles
* Life in jail is very boring. Some prisoners will have to spend in prison 20 years or more. Egyptian prisoners have nearly nothing which can help you spend time without being bored. That’s how prisoners discovered a new way to kill time: making troubles.
* One of the prisoners told me, “the prisoner is a son of a bitch, if you gave him a finger, he will take you all, he will step on your head”… He was describing how prisoners deal with each other inside jail.
* The advantage of making troubles is that it kills lots of time and it brings with it lots of positive and negative feelings. They need those feelings while they are isolated by speechless walls.
That’s why prisoners fight each other every moment, interfere in others’ privacy, deliberately understand every word as an insult to use it to begin a fight… etc.
* Prisoners don’t know how to spend time positively and prison management doesn’t try to teach them how to do that. They don’t like to read newspapers or books. They usually aren’t interested in continuing their study from within jail.
* Long boring time and the inability to use it pushes them to use narcotics continuously to kill time and drugs make them make more troubles, and the cycle goes on.

- Final general notices

• Being a prisoner myself, made it hard for me to focus more than this. I wish I could make larger and more detailed research.
• Also, I felt changes in my behavior inside jail. Some changes are good adaptation, others are bad changes, I’ll need to visit a psychiatrist to fix them. What I’m trying to say is that in prison, there is a behavioral state affecting anyone inside and each prisoner is forced to take reaction towards it.
• Legally, there should be a psychiatrist and a social professional in jail to help prisoners. I don’t know if they exist, but if they do, we are not in contact with them in an way. This way in prison management doesn’t fight crime, but produces new criminals to society.

Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg prison
18-5-2011

This compilation of reports are only from the past few weeks:

A Filipina domestic helper rendered blind by her sponsor in Kuwait after working without pay for a year [Source]

Herath Menika, a young Sri Lankan maid who worked in Bahrain, recounts the story of her abusive employers [Source]

An Indian man committed suicide in the house of his sponsor in Waha, Kuwait, while a housemaid attempts suicide [Source]

Abeline Baholiarisoa, a maid from Madagascar, forced to work as a “slave maid” for wealthy families in Lebanon for 15 years [Source]

Indian migrant workers harassed in Saudi Arabia [Source]

In Kuwait, more maids commit suicide [Source], while an Indian driver attempts to kill himself by slitting his wrists [Source]

A Filipino maid in her mid-30s attempts suicide in Kuwait [Source]

A housemaid raped in Kuwait [Source]

“Raped, battered, made pregnant, then kicked out: a common story for maids” (in the Middle East.) This story is about a Nepali maid in Saudi Arabia [Source]

Two men kidnapped and raped an Asian housemaid in Kuwait [Source]

Indonesian autopsy reveals violence killed maid in Saudi Arabia [Source]

Unspeakable cruelty: abused Ethiopian nanny found at Gadhafi compound [Source]

New ordeal for Indonesian who escaped Saudi sword [Source]

Kenyan woman working in Saudi Arabia seeks assistance to leave the country due to abusive employers [Source]

Kuwait: Asian ‘dies’ in sponsor’s home [Source] while another attempts suicide [Source]

Kenyans suffer in slavery in Saudi Arabia [Source]

Indonesian maid attempts suicide in Farwaniya, Kuwait [Source]

A murdered maid in the UAE was abused regularly [Source]

Nepali housemaid without pay for 3 months in Bahrain [Source]

Nepali worker commits suicide in the UAE [Source]

2 Emiratis, one of them a policeman, rape and then beat to death an Indonesian maid [Source]

Indian slave who was imprisoned for 3 years without pay was repatriated from Saudi Arabia [Source]

Bahrain: 2 Filipinos working for the Al Khalifa royal family have not been paid in 13 months [Source]

Indonesian migrant worker endured years of abuse [Source]

Indonesian maid attempts suicide in Al Baha, Saudi Arabia [Source]

Filipino maid found hanging in employers’ home in UAE [Source]

Video: Saudi man whipping a Bangladeshi garbage collector [Source]

Saudi Arabia: Indian maid injured while escaping her sponsors who locked her up and mistreated her [Source]

Oman: Unpaid migrants reduced to begging for food [Source]

30 Sri Lankan migrants go on a hunger strike in Iraq over months of unpaid wages [Source]

All of these cases took place very recently. Many might read these incidents once or twice a week, and could dismiss the abuse as infrequent. But these are just the cases that made it out to the media. If we continue to compile such lists day after day, you may safely consider this to be a mass crime approved by society and our governments, a crime with root causes that includes racism.

Of relevance, please read the following reports:

Kuwaiti Authorities Torture Migrant Workers to Death:

Two separate instances of Kuwaiti policemen and Ministry of Defense officials torturing migrant workers to death have surfaced in recent days.

Unfortunately, abuse of migrants by police are not unique in Kuwait. Recently, the Court of Appeals acquitted a policemen of torturing and raping two Filipinas. In April 2010 we’ve documented a previous case of kidnapping and raping of an Indonesian maid by a Kuwait police officer. In January 2010 a police officer in Kuwait admitted to raping women migrant workers for 15 years and then sending them off to the deportation center. On November 29, 2009 the Arab Times reported about the case of two maids who were kidnapped and gang-raped by a policemen and his friend and then sent to the deportation center. These reports illustrate how Kuwait state officials are able to abuse migrants with impunity. In these cases and many unreported ones the Kuwaiti police, which is supposed to protect abused workers, turns into another mechanism of oppression.

Read the full report here.

Every Two Days a Migrant Worker Attempts or Commits Suicide in Kuwait:

In a little over a month (35 days: February 19 – March 25), there have been 17 reported cases of migrant workers who committed or attempted to commit suicide in Kuwait. Local papers usually provide two sentences about each suicide in the “Crime” section, and their death is soon forgotten. Their nationality is sometimes mentioned, but names are not – it seems to interest no one. This harrowing trend is a reflection of poor working conditions, abuse from sponsors and the little protection migrant workers are offered in Kuwait.

Read the full report, with countless evidence of abuse, here.

Saudi “Justice”: Maid Torturer Acquitted

The horrific case of abuse of 23-year-old Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa by her Saudi sponsor once again illustrates the injustice inherent in Saudi Arabia’s justice system. In January, Sumiati’s woman employer was sentenced to three years in prison for stabbing, beating and burning Sumiati. However, this week, a Saudi court acquitted the woman of all charges.

Read the full report here.

The list goes on. And on.

Further coverage from around the web can be found here:

What does it take to end this nightmare that millions of migrant workers are experiencing in our neighborhoods right this second?