Emirates – the horrific crime of the brutal murder of a Filipina domestic worker in Dubai renewed the debate about the abuses of migrant domestic workers, especially in the Gulf region, forcing them to flee their workplace and end up in an unregulated market where they face further abuses that may lead to their death.
Dubai Police revealed the horrific details of the case, where the victim is a Filipina domestic worker killed by a butcher of the same nationality.
Dubai Police identified the headless body of a woman found in Dubai in May as Maria Normita de Lima, 46, a runaway domestic worker based in Abu Dhabi. The suspect had allegedly borrowed Dh10,000 from the victim and killed her when she demanded her money back, the report said. After killing the woman, the suspect reportedly dumped her body in Dubai, cut off her head and hands, burnt them and then buried them in a sandy area in Ajman.
This case led the experts in defending the legal rights of migrant workers to emphasize the importance of providing decent work environments especially to domestic workers, where some suffer from the exposure to bad working conditions where in some cases it reaches the limit of slavery. For instance, they are forced to work for long hours, not allowed their personal documents, held indoors, denied their right for vacations and holidays or even communicating with their families and loved ones.
This forces some to escape their workplaces, to find themselves a victim again for brokers and others in the unregulated labour market because they fear the illegal status they put themselves in.
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