Kuwait City :Two Filipino household service workers (HSWs) working in the same household escaped from their employer and sought refuge at the Philippine Embassy shelter in Hateen area after enduring allegedly eight months of severe physical abuse from their female Kuwaiti employer leaving them with bruises and scars all over their body.
She allegedly abused them verbally, bit them, poked their eyes till blood oozed out, hit them with a broom, hose or other hard objects. Worst of all, she almost cut the tongue of one of the two HSWs and even inserted a small bottle filled with chili hot sauce and other spices into her private part.
Rhea (not her real name), 25, married with two kids who hails from Iloilo City in the Philippines arrived in Kuwait on Dec 15, 2014 and recounted to the Arab Times that her ordeal started two days after she arrived at her employer’s house. “It was December 17, I was cleaning the comfort room when suddenly she hit me twice on the back with a paddle. It hurt so much and I asked her why she hit me. She said, I work too slow so I told her to return me to the agency if she’s not happy with me but she told me I have to pay her back but she didn’t return me to the agency. Since then, she’s been hitting me everyday using any hard object,” she stated.
Rhea narrated that on Feb 27-28 this year, her female employer took her to the kitchen outside and asked her to strip naked and inserted a bottle of chili hot sauce into her private part. “I cried so hard and asked her to stop and she was happy to see the dripping chili sauce,” she shared. Then in June during the holy month of Ramadan, her female employer attempted to cut her tongue. “I turned my face away when she was trying to open my mouth. She tried to cut my tongue using a pair of scissors but I was shoving her away and she cut my upper lip and my front tooth was broken,” sobbed Rhea as she showed the scar on her lip making it look like a harelip.
Meanwhile, her other Filipina colleague, Flora (not her real name), 27, married who also hails from Iloilo City arrived at the same household on Dec 22, 2014. Like Rhea, Flora claimed she also suffered severe physical abuse in the hands of their female employer though not as grave as what happened to Rhea. “Last April 1, she hit my left arm with hose and it left a huge hematoma. She hits us daily and bites us, look at all these scars, these are all bite marks from my madam,” she stated. Aside from the physical and verbal abuse, their lady employer also shaved their heads, leaving them bald.
“It was like hell but we can’t escape because the house was locked and there were cameras all over the house that are connected to our madam’s mobile phone so she can monitor us even she’s at work. We’re also afraid to fight back because we’ve heard that her husband is a general,” explained Rhea.
Finally, on July 24, 2015, their employer and her family were travelling to the US so she took them to her sibling’s house while they were away for vacation. “We waited for two weeks then finally on August 8, we had the chance to escape and we ran to the POLO-OWWA shelter and we’re turned over to the shelter here in Hateen,” stated Flora.
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