Overseas Domestic workers are in a juridical "no-man's land".

The Issue

Even when some governments - at both sending and receiving ends - do institute some guidelines for working conditions, the quasi-regulated status of "domestic work" works corruption in the hand. On the one hand migrant workers require legal documents (passports, working permits) in order to leave and enter countries, and this is strictly controlled by government offices. But on the other hand there is no supervising body which is responsible for making sure that the recruitment and detachment of migrant workers occur honestly. This mix of strict official requirements and private agencies "offering services" to aspirant migrants who are mostly poor and uneducated pave the way for corruption at all levels and stages of the migration trajectory, with the aspirant migrant worker caught in a maze of illegality and debts.

Women migrant workers have no recourse to justice when their rights are violated, since they have no legal security of employment under national labour laws. Often this adds to their vulnerability to other forms of abuse and violence, since they are afraid to jeopardise their (sometimes unofficial) jobs by reporting abuses to the police.

When women migrant workers do attempt to seek redress they are confronted and often deterred by the discriminatory attitudes and behaviour of police and other officials. Or they are confronted with the collusion of the rich with the powerful, as in cases of immunity of diplomatic officials from prosecution (see newsreport 1) when they have been guilty of breach of contract, or even when they have abused domestic workers.

At this moment, Amnesty International is running a world-wide campaign to publicise the plight of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Under the closed, arbitrary system of that country, untold numbers of migrants workers, including many women domestic workers, have been imprisoned, convicted of various crimes, punished in degrading ways and even executed, without the knowledge of their families or even the diplomatic representatives of their countries. There are serious doubts as to the fairness of the processes, and great concern that the rights to due process of the persons concerned are being violated.

An active case is described by AI in a campaign folder:

"A Life at Risk"

Siti Zainab, a 32-year-old Indonesian domestic worker, is reported to be currently detained, possibly in a police station in Medina, on charges of murdering her employer. She is alleged to have "confessed" to the crime under police interrogation, but no information is available about any trial that might have taken place. According to reports, police suspect that she is psychologically ill. Amnesty International fears that she is at risk of execution.

The Rights concerned in this issue are as follows:

UDHR: Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8 :

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10 :

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

ICPRMW: Article 18

1. Migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to equality with nationals of the State concerned before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against them or of their rights and obligations in a suit of law, they shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law.

2. Migrant workers and members of their families who are charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law.

3. In the determination of any criminal charge against them, migrant workers and members of their families shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees:

(a) To be informed promptly and in detail in a language they understand of the nature and cause of the charge against them;

(b) To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of their defence and to communicate with counsel of their own choosing:

(c) To be tried without undue delay;

(d) To be tried in their presence and to defend themselves in person or through legal assistance of their own choosing; to be informed, if they do not have legal assistance, of this right; and to have legal assistance assigned to them, in any case where the interests of justice so require and without payment by them in any such case if they do not have sufficient means to pay;

(e) To examine or have examined the witnesses against them and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on their behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against them;

(f) To have the free assistance of an interpreter if they cannot understand or speak the language used in court;

(g) Not to be compelled to testify against themselves or to confess guilt.

4. In the case of juvenile persons, the procedure shall be such as will take account of their age and the desirability of promoting their rehabilitation.

5. Migrant workers and members of their families convicted of a crime shall have the right to their conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law.

6. When a migrant worker or a member of his or her family has, by a final decision, been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his or her conviction has been reversed or he or she has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law, unless it is proved that the nondisclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to that person.

7. No migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he or she has already been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of the State concerned.