CHENNAI: 49-year-old Jayanthi Armugam, a domestic help in Doha, who had been abused by her employer for the last 15 months, has been rescued and kept in a detention centre. Her family confirmed that Jayanthi is in detention centre and is likely to return by Monday.This comes after Express highlighted the plight of Jayanthi, who was apprehended by her Qatari employer Jamal Majed A Al Niami, after she stepped out of her home to reach the Indian Embassy in Doha seeking help.
Vanitha, the eldest daughter of Jayanthi, told Express that she was informed by Josephine Valarmathi from National Domestic Workers Movement in Chennai, that her mother is likely to return by Monday.“It is a good news. I spoke to my mother in the evening,” said Vanitha, thanking the Indian Embassy in Qatar for their intervention.Valarmathi told Express that she has been informed by Embassy officials that Jayanthi is in detention centre awaiting deportation.
This was also tweeted by Migrant-Rights.org’s Vani Saraswathi, who said that Jayanthi being kept in a detention centre is a miscarriage of justice.“After the trauma she has been through, she should have been in a shelter,” said Vani.Jayanthi reached Doha at the end of 2019 to work as a domestic worker and suffered extreme physical, emotional and mental abuse at the hands of her employer.
In October last year, she left the home to file complaint to the police and Indian Embassy. However, she was taken back to the employer, as officials said it would be difficult to send her home during the pandemic.According to International Labour Organisation (ILO), around 19 per cent of the world’s domestic workers live in the Arab States.
The region hosts the largest number of women migrant domestic workers in the world, estimated at 1.6 million, though other estimates point at higher number of such workers. Domestic workers are explicitly excluded from the labour law of almost all countries in the Arab States region.
While some countries have separate legislation or regulations for domestic workers (including Jordan, Kuwait, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic and Qatar), the standards set are commonly lower than those in the general labour laws, according to the International Labour Organisation.