Migrant rights' NGO Tenaganita has lambasted the home minister for claiming that the recent death of domestic help Mautik Hani following abuse by her employers is the first of its kind in the country.

36-year-old Mautik Hani from Surabaya died having been severely beaten by her Malaysian employers, and then bound and locked up in a toilet for two days.

According to reports, she was kept locked in a toilet until a new domestic help found her after getting a stench from the bathroom.

Hani's backbone and right wrist were broken, body bruised, face swollen, and a wound on her right leg was so severe that the bone was visible.

abused indonesian maid nirmala bonat then and now 170108 A press statement released by Tenaganita director and human right's advocate Irene Fernandez said that such horrendous abuse was not the first of its kind.

Have we forgotten Nirmala Bonat's case in 2004, who was severely abused. This year alone, on May 24, another Indonesian domestic help died in Petaling Jaya after sustaining severe injuries to her head and body as reported by Jakarta Post.

In June 2009, Siti Hajar was tortured by her employer that included starving, beating and scalding her with boiling water, Fernandez said in her statement.

She added "Before that, in March, (there was) another case of abuse of another Indonesian domestic help named Siami in Segamat, Johor who had worked 5 months for her employer.

"She was scalded with hot water, struck with a rotan, punched and kicked by her employer."

Abuse on the rise?

irene fernandez interview 251108 03 Fernandez (right) said that Tenaganita had handled 273 cases with over 2,184 human rights violations committed by the employers and the recruiting agencies over the last three years.

She further emphasized that the cases involving domestic workers who had been physically abused, raped, not being paid wages, not given days off and have had their passports confiscated by employers were on the rise with instances where children as young as 14 years old were being made to work for up to 22 hours a day.

Fernandez chided Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein for not doing enough to protect domestic workers in the country.

"(The Home Minister) should pull up his socks and conduct open and serious investigations to violence and abuse faced by domestic workers and why the roads to justice are shut down".

Laws need to be changed

She urged the Home Ministry to take cognizance of the serious need for legal reform in the country.

"Only when rights of workers are protected by laws and when domestic workers are recognised as workers, will employers, agents and Malaysians as a whole respect and give dignity to the domestic help."

"The statutes and the legal process cannot and must not exclude domestic help."

She added, "We must change our laws (to) redefine domestic help as work and not as servant in the employment act. We need a clear standardized contract for all domestic help (which are) attached to the employment act for effective enforcement. The one day off must be implemented without delay."

She stressed that Malaysia had failed to live up to its commitments made in ratifying CEDAW (The Convention In The Elimination Of All forms of Discrimination Against Women) and had also been placed in tier 3 for the second time by the US State Department in its report on human trafficking - citing the vulnerable conditions of domestic workers that bring about servitude and slavery like practices.