1) Maids are often seen merely as domestic workers but should be considered the national human resources of their home countries. Seeing maids this way leads to widespread abuses in both sending and receiving countries. 2) Maid abuse cases are prevalent globally and take many horrific forms, including physical, sexual and psychological torture and even murder. There is no justification for these abuses. 3) Resolving maid abuses requires political will and action from sending countries. Sending countries must establish comprehensive protection policies, support networks, and bilateral agreements to defend their citizens working abroad. Political expediency should not come before citizens' welfare.

1. Political Stewardship: Maid Abuses - Political Will Is Needed For Lawful Protection of
Women Citizens Who Work As Maids
Who Are Maids: Domestic Workers or National Human Resources?
Maids are generally considered to be domestic workers for anyone who can afford to
pay them their meager remuneration. This description alone leads to all types of abuses. We
have to look at maids as more than just domestic workers.
In order to resolve maid abuses, a political stewardship understanding of maids
should be upheld nationally by every sending and recipient country. Maids should be
considered “as the national human resources of a sending country for employment in
another.” Anything short of this kind of minimum understanding of maids is short-changing
the women citizens who through their back-breaking toils contribute to a national economy
and the well-being of their families.
What Are Maid Abuses?
Maid Abuses Are Prevalent
Maid abuse cases are not isolated cases of certain countries only. A random scanning
of maid abuses in news media has reports on maid abuses in countries like Singapore,
Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Gulf States and Middle East etc. Maid abuses reported in
news media are just the tip of the iceberg. For every reported case, there are countless
unreported cases that go unnoticed. These are horrific and inhuman crimes committed
behind closed doors.
Maid Abuses Are Horrific and Inhuman
The crimes committed against maids range in severity as well as in its criminal and
sadistic nature. Maids have been forced to work without pay. Maids have been verbally
abused. Maids have been made to work without reasonable rest periods. Maids have been
made to work in multiple sites for the same pay. Maids have been physically tortured:
starved, punched, burned and made to swallow nails, sliced, scourged with hot water,
chained like dogs and made to drink their own urine. Maids have been molested, raped and
sodomized. Maids have been used as sexual slaves. Maids have been murdered and their
bodies dump like rubbish in public places. If these are not horrific and inhuman crimes,
what is?
Maid Abuses Cannot Be Justified
Is there justification for maid abuses? By any cultural, religious or moral standards,
there is no justification for maid abuses. It is when maids are considered domestic workers,
persona non-grata, human cattle, or human dispensable tools, that their abuses are

2. justified. Even if a recipient country justifies maid abuse, it is the national duty of a sending
country to defend and protect its citizens, especially their women. If a government cannot
protect its own citizens, (especially women), what good are they as a governing power?
Political powers, if not employed for the protection of its citizens especially women,
becomes meaningless and irrelevant as governing powers. So, sending countries should use
their political powers to defend their national human resources who work in other
countries. Why maid abuses need political resolutions?
Maid Abuses Need Political Resolutions
Recipient nation-states usually explain away, cover-up or ignore the complaints of
maid abuses by a single individual or group of individuals who are not their citizens. It
usually takes a high profile media exposure before certain countries had even acknowledged
an abuse. It has been shown in past news reports, how maid abuse issues in certain
countries have been swept under their national bureaucratic carpet and the criminal culprits
have got off leniently or with impunity. Certain country seems to suffer from legal and moral
apathy when it involves abuses of women citizens of other countries within their
jurisdiction. What does this legal and moral apathy indicate about their value system
regarding foreign women citizens? Only in few cases, have criminals who abuse maids, been
prosecuted in an open court and given a reasonable punishment. To those nations who did
their duties! Bravo! Bravo! It is in the context of such national and moral apathy of recipient
nations that the sending nations have to employ political leverage to ensure the protection
of their national human resources and citizens. It is more efficient for a government to deal
with a government on issues of national interest. Maid abuses should be considered a
national interest as it involves the national human resources, especially their women
citizens.
Why Maids Get Abused?
Here are few reasons of why maids get abused in recipient countries.
1. Lack of Comprehensive National Policies for Maid Protection
The first and foremost reason, why maids get abused in recipient countries is
because, there is a lack and sometimes no national polices on maid recruitment and
employment in sending and recipient countries. Maid recruitment and employment when is
considered a private business transaction leads to abuses that has no control. As long as
sending and recipient countries ignore the need to have national policies, maid abuses will
continue without the necessary checks and balances. I believe, it is in the interest of the
sending country to be proactive in initiating national polices on maid recruitment and
employment. Even, if governing powers treat maid recruitment and employment as a
private business matter, they can still introduce reasonable legislations and policies on a
national level to protect their women citizens. This is the root solution to long term checks

3. and balances for maid abuses. There is no detail, mechanics or administrative structure that
cannot be thought-out in developing National Policies for Maid Protection.
2. Non-Professional Maid Recruitment Services
The second reason for most maid abuses is the lack of professional maid recruitment
services in countries. The basic drive of a maid recruitment agency is to make a quick profit.
Most of them don’t have concern for the welfare of the citizens the recruit. They are even
no more bothered about the background of potential employers who could turn out to be
criminals. Their inability to check, appraise, discern and follow-up professionally coupled
with their narrow profit-minded mindset and attitude is a contributing factor to maid
abuses.
3. Lack of Maid Support Networks
There is a lack of legal, social and psychological support networks for maids
especially in recipient countries. As such, maids who face abuses can only find support in
other maids, which is limited, as both also need support. I know certain religious institutions
and NGO(s) are attempting to fill in these needs. But, until these needs for Maid Support
Networks are established systematically and comprehensively under the umbrella of a
national policy for maid protection, its lack will continue to be another contributing factor
for maid abuses that goes unnoticed and not highlighted.
4. Abusive Mindsets and Attitudes of Maid Employers
Certain employers even the so-called educated ones, have abusive mindsets and
attitudes towards maids. In their distorted thinking, the meager amount they agree to pay a
maid, entitles them to abuse the minds, bodies and spirits of their maids. In short, they
convince themselves erroneously, that they own the maids like slaves or like any of their
other material assets. When such erroneous and psychologically sick mindsets and attitudes
are formed and maintained, maid abuse will be in full force. The more psychologically
powerful an employer considers himself/herself to be, the more abusive they become
towards their maids. These psychologically sick employers deliberately ignore the fact that
their maids are the national human resources and citizens of another country who have all
the rights just like them. The meager amount that they pay the maids sometimes does not
compensate for the time and labor given by the maids. It is the vicious cycle of exploitation
of economic poverty which the psychologically sick employers use to their advantage. If any
employer or their representatives justifies maid abuses, I would suggest that they
voluntarily allow themselves to be abused to know what is the pain and suffering that they
inflict on others. If a recipient country justifies the abuse of the citizens of a sending
country, then they should not complain when their citizens undergo any sort of abuses at
the hands of others in foreign lands. It is sad to see in news reports that the judiciary

4. processes of certain recipient countries, allow criminals of maid abuses to get away either
with impunity or leniency.
5. Impunity and Leniency in Prosecution of Maid Abuses
Impunity and leniency shown by the judiciary processes of a recipient country in the
event of maid abuses creates an atmosphere of risk and danger to all foreign maids who
wants to work in such a country. The governments of the sending country should warn their
women citizens of the dangers of going to countries that fails to protect them. Again, many
times this doesn’t happen because the sending countries do not want to offend their
political friend. So, the women citizens who are not warned get abused again and again. In
the light of impunity and leniency of prosecution of maid abuse criminals in certain
countries, the following are suggestions as how a sending country can confront this issue in
a realistic manner:
What Are Needed To Resolve Long-Term Maid Abuses?
Every time there is a high profile case of maid abuse, there will a short period of
media attention on the case. Ordinary citizens would demonstrate to show solidarity with
the victims. Political leaders of sending countries will comment in a discreet manner with
similar discreet replies from the leaders of the recipient country. Everything is discreet and
done diplomatically. That’s it. Case closed. Then, the next abuse takes place. The scenario
repeats itself. Does it sound familiar?
Political Will Is Needed
When citizens of a democratic country elect their leaders to governing powers, one
of the national expectations is that, they will be defended and protected by their leaders.
Protection of citizens requires the political will to be exercised on behalf of the citizens
locally and in foreign lands. All the discreet talks, diplomacy, citizens’ demonstrations and
media attention will avail to nothing, until a real deliberate exercise of political will is
employed to protect its citizens. The logic is simple. Though, humanitarianly and morally
speaking, recipient countries of maids have a duty to protect foreign human resources. But
for whatever the reasons, if they are indifferent in their response, the duty to protect falls
back primarily on the government of the sending country. So, what will be the responses of
the government of sending countries? The decisions they make will decide whether there
will be moves towards the creation of systems like:
1. Comprehensive national maid protection policies in sending and recipient
countries,
2. Promotion of governmental and Ngo maid support networks,
3. Implementation of professional maid training in human rights,

5. 4. A creation of bilateral and multilateral systems for managing, monitoring and
resolving maid abuses,
Conclusions:
Non-response or an apathetic response by a sending country on maid abuses sends a
dangerous and wrong message to perpetrators of maid crimes in recipient nations. Bilateral
relationships between two countries are important in politics. However, the well-being and
lives of citizens especially women, cannot be sacrificed for bilateral or multilateral political
relationships. The citizens come first before any bilateral or multilateral political
relationships. In the event, a country scarifies the wellbeing and lives of its citizens for
bilateral or multilateral relationships, it is sending out a wrong message to the entire world.
The message is clear: “we prioritize political relationships over the wellbeing and lives of our
citizens. No matter what you do to our citizens, we value your political relationships more.”
When that happens, the citizens become targets for abuses. So, there is only one way out
for sending countries. They must protect their national human resources against all threat,
local or foreign. They must especially protect their women who are their daughters, sisters,
and mothers. Don’t expect a recipient country to do the job that one as a sending country
should have done first – protect your national human resources. This is part of political
stewardship.