Maid claims she was treated like a slave

January 18, 2012


The maid claims that she had no off days and worked from dawn till next morning and often went hungry.

MELBOURNE: A Cambodian maid has revealed that she was treated like a slave by her employer in Kuala Lumpur, according to a report in “The Age” newspaper today.



Apparently a one-metre snake “ended” Orn Eak’s two-year ordeal when it entered her employer’s apartment, and her services were subsequently terminated.

(Serpents, or nagas, play a particularly important role in Cambodian mythology.)

“When the snake crawled into my employer’s apartment she blamed me and kicked me out,” Orn Eak, 28, told the newspaper’s Southeast Asia correspondent Lindsay Murdoch.

“I got the blame for everything, including the death of my employer’s elderly mother.”

Single with a five-year-old son, Orn Eak said she went to Malaysia to work because her mother was struggling to survive in their village in Kompong Thom province.

Orn Eak claimed she had no days off and worked from dawn into the early hours of the next morning, caring for her employer’s disabled mother. She said she was often beaten and went hungry.

The mistreatment worsened after the old woman died in hospital.

Last October, Cambodia imposed a temporary ban on sending domestic workers to Malaysia following numerous complaints of abuse. The order was signed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen following “some negative information” about the working environment of Cambodian maids in Malaysia.

Orn Eak’s mother, Ee Tha, 55, told “The Age” that she received only two payments in almost two years from her daughter’s employer totalling US$270 (about RM840). The employer deducted Orn Eak’s flight ticket home from her salary, which was supposed to be US$180 a month.

Welcome home daughter of the Kingdom of Wonder and predatory sex tourist :

When Orn Eak arrived back in Phnom Penh in November, a woman picked her up at the airport and took her to the employment agency.

“I told the story about the snake to a director. Five men came into the room and beat me. They pushed my head onto a glass door and kicked me on the ground,” she said.

Ee Tha, who was asked to come to Phnom Penh to take her daughter home, said: “When I saw that my daughter’s face and body were cut and bruised, my heart dropped.”

After Ee Tha refused to leave the employment agency’s office with her daughter until she was given the money she was owed, a director finally handed over US$1,200 (about RM3,740) – that meant Orn Eak earned only US$1,470 (about RM4,580) for nearly two years’ work.

Social workers have verified her claims of abuse, the newspaper said.

Maids have no minute for them!

After Ee Tha refused to leave the employment agency’s office with her daughter until she was given the money she was owed, a director finally handed over US$1,200 (about RM3,740) – that meant Orn Eak earned only US$1,470 (about RM4,580) for nearly two years’ work.

Apparently that's more than she would have made in her squalid village back in that festering shithole called Cambodia.

She ought to be thanking her employers for their generosity.

Now she can return home and use that money to build a well for her village.

As Fredmasse might say: All's well that ends well.

...i watched a documentary the other night. similar story. phillipino woman, sick child in need of operation,two year contract domestic work in saudi arabia. she was abused,forced to convert to muslim,never payed and the family which employed her held her passport. she ran away was picked up by another guy who offered her work with his in-laws. but they werejust as bad. phillipino consulate was crooked as hell. film crew ended up buying a fake passport(from a guy the consulate recomended) and got her out of the country and back home. she made no money at all.

maybe shell get a job at a particle physics lab or Macy's snack bar one day

FrogFryer wrote:

maybe shell get a job at a particle physics lab or Macy's snack bar one day

.... i bet she could paint nails.

you can't have enough nail painters ya know.

FrogFryer wrote:

maybe shell get a job at a particle physics lab or Macy's snack bar one day

Apparently the job requirements to be a soda jerk at Macy's is an advanced university degree and fluency in 5 languages.

Seems a little much to ask of a minimum wage trog but it is a tough job market out there.