NEW YORK // When the hunger became too much, the two young Indonesian maids would rummage through the rubbish bins for discarded food, knowing that to be caught would inevitably bring a beating. Their life of servitude included 24-hour days, seven days a week, that ended only when one of the women escaped and told their story to the authorities. What has shocked America is that this story of human rights abuse, which ended last week with a court award of US$1 million (Dh3.67m) in compensation, happened on its own doorstep, in a country that prides itself as being a beacon of freedom and liberty.
Instead, what is emerging is a growing problem of human trafficking in the US, with countless thousands of illegal immigrants arriving every year to work in degrading conditions as domestic servants, farm labourers, hotel workers and prostitutes. In many ways, Samirah and Enung, the maids at the centre of the recent court case in New York, were the lucky ones. Their employers, Varsha Sabhnani, 46, and her husband Mahender, 51, were sentenced to prison terms of 11 and three years respectively after being found guilty in June on federal charges that included forced labour and involuntary servitude.
According to prosecutors, the couple, who own a perfume business and a US$2m (Dh7.35m) home in a wealthy suburb of Long Island, beat the women with brooms, cut them with knives and forced them to take cold showers if they stepped out of line. In a separate court case last Friday, a judge doubled the amount of unpaid wages the women were claiming to an award of US$1m, ruling that the couple's assets could be seized to pay the compensation.
The case highlights the difficulties faced by even the world's superpower in trying to stamp out the abuse of foreign labourers. According to the Washington-based human rights group Free The Slaves, about 14,500 people are trafficked into the US every year. The government admits it has a problem. "Trafficking and exploitation plague all nations and no country, even ours, is immune," Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, wrote in the introduction to the US state department's 2008 overview of global trafficking, released in June.
Stories of abuse in other parts of the world have received extensive media attention in recent years. The most recent report grades countries according to a three-tier list, with the most serious category for "governments that do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so". Tier-three nations include North Korea, Iran, Syria, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The UAE was removed from the tier-three list in the latest report and placed on the tier-two watchlist, with the state department noting that although "the Government of the United Arab Emirates does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking", it was "making significant efforts to do so".
At the same time, the US is fighting its own battle against exploitation. "The US is a destination country for thousands of men, women and children trafficked largely from East Asia, Mexico and Central America for the purposes of sexual and labour exploitation," said the 2008 human trafficking report. "A majority of foreign victims identified during the year were victims of trafficking for forced labour. Some men and women, responding to fraudulent offers of employment in the United States, migrate willingly - legally and illegally - but are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude or debt bondage at work sites or in the commercial sex trade."
The Long Island case is mentioned in the report as a prominent example of abuse. Meanwhile, Samirah and Enung are trying to rebuild their shattered lives. "They are so scared and trust no one," said Joyce Gill-Campbell of Domestic Workers United (DWU), a group that tries to improve conditions in the sector. "We are trying to get them back into society but they are both over 50 so it's going to be hard for them.
"One of the women's sons died back home and she didn't find out until long afterwards. The mental strain has been enormous and they will be in therapy for a long time." While the level of torture in their case may be extreme, more common forms of abuse suffered by many of the estimated 200,000 domestic workers in New York state include long hours for low wages, without sick days or health care. Many work in isolation in their employers' homes and depend on them for food and transportation.
"Domestic workers in the US suffer from the same types of labour violations as seen in so many other parts of the world," said Nisha Varia, senior women's rights researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). HRW has surveyed domestic workers around the world, where its reports have provoked government consternation. "Countries of employment in the Middle East admit migrant domestic workers as short-term contract labourers and accord them few rights," said an HRW report on Sri Lankan domestic workers last November.
The US offered more protection but needed to do more, said Ms Gill-Campbell. She described the humiliation she suffered in her first job as a nanny after leaving Barbados more than a decade ago to work for a rich couple on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "The couple had two dogs. One got cancer and wasn't so good at walking. I had to push it and the little girl in a double stroller while dressed in a white uniform. I felt so dehumanised.
"I would talk to other nannies in the playground and was made aware that a lot of employers underestimate our intelligence. "Economic pressures in our countries forced us to come here to look for a better life but on many days I just cried." When one of the dogs was scratched in the eye by the cat and required regular eye drops, she was made to sleep near the animal's cage and administer treatment.
Ms Gill-Campbell, 56, now works full-time for DWU, which was founded in 2000 to fight for better working conditions for nannies, housekeepers and caregivers for the elderly in New York. She recounts tales of other domestic workers being treated harshly. "We have many members who've been physically or sexually abused. One girl was slapped in the face with a shoe. Another was forced to sleep in a basement overflowing with sewage. Another took a day off to see her friends and was fired," she said.
In the US, domestic workers cannot form labour unions and organise with others to bargain collectively under federal law, which requires a minimum number of employees at any establishment. Nonetheless, these mostly female workers are joining together in bigger numbers to push for better conditions. DWU hosted the first national convention in New York in June and brought together 20 groups from across the country.
The organisation has high hopes that next year the New York state government will push through a bill of rights for domestic workers. If passed, the legislation would give domestic workers protection such as health coverage, one day of rest per week and notice of termination. The US Census Bureau estimates there could be up to 1.5 million domestic workers, but an exact count is impossible because many are in the country illegally or do not report income taxes.
Reform has come mostly at the local rather than national level. For example, in 2003, New York's City Council was the first to pass domestic-worker legislation, requiring employers to inform employees in writing about wages and duties. Activists are trying to make a difference in other cities, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Houston. There are frequent setbacks. In 2006, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, vetoed a bill that would have ensured overtime for nannies and allowed them and other domestic workers to sue for back wages, saying it would have encouraged frivolous legislation. Nonetheless, state lawmakers are still pushing for reform.
One of the hardest tasks facing groups such as DWU is getting workers to speak out, particularly those who migrated recently or are illegal. The group works through churches and colleges to reach out to them. "I believe in standing up for my fellow sisters and the hardest thing is persuading some of them to come forward," said Jennifer Barnard, a nanny and part-time organiser with DWU, who is from Trinidad & Tobago. "I say that my office is the playground."
Maria, who preferred to use a pseudonym because she was worried about embarrassing her present employers, fought back after she was forced out of her last job when she could not work overtime because of her own children. "Many of these families don't give us any rights, expect us to be there all the time to pick up after them and can't even say 'Have a good weekend'," said Maria, who is from Dominica. "Why should I have to take that?"
Her last employer refused to acknowledge that Maria had ever worked for her, claiming her pay cheques were given out of friendship and not as wages. Part of her evidence allowed by the judge was a taped conversation with the doorman greeting Maria as the former nanny, thus proving her previous employment. Maria won her case, with the judge awarding her unemployment pay, while the former employer was forced to pay a penalty and back taxes.
She said few other domestic workers were as lucky as her. "We could end up as beggars and so many people won't care." Ms Varia of HRW said she hoped both the US and the UAE would soon implement substantially more extensive laws offering protection as well as serving as global models. "Living costs in the US and the UAE are very high so it's common for domestic workers to live-in. The situation in the US is not on the same scale as the Gulf, where there are many more domestic workers, but they do suffer the same types of abuses," she said.
@Email:sdevi@thenational.ae
