VOA常速英语2007年-Rights Group Says Sri Lankan Domestic Workers A

By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
14 November 2007

A leading rights group says Sri Lankan domestic workers in the Middle East are victims of serious abuses. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, Human Rights Watch accuses Persian Gulf¹ countries of failing to give legal protection to tens of thousands of foreign women working as domestic help.

In a new report, Human Rights Watch paints a grim picture of the life that Sri Lankan domestic workers face in several Gulf countries.

An estimated 660,000 women from Sri Lanka work overseas as domestic help - mostly in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

The report says these women typically work 16 to 21 hours a day, without breaks or days off - often for wages as low as 15 to 30 cents an hour.

It says many are also victims of abuses such as forced confinement², food deprivation³, physical and verbal abuse, forced labor⁴, sexual harassment⁵ and rape⁶ by employers.

The author of the report, Jennifer Turner, says most of the women are helpless in the face of such abuse because Middle Eastern countries do not offer labor protection to domestic workers.

"The labor laws explicitly⁷ exclude domestic workers. Therefore, employers can violate their rights with impunity⁸ and are not violating any labor laws," she explained. "In all cases, women's employers confiscated⁹ their passports, in nearly all cases women's employers were limiting their freedom of movement, limiting their communication with their family, their ability to call home."

The report is based on interviews with almost 100 women who had worked in these countries. Turner explains the problems they often face.

"In these countries it is very difficult for women to bring a case against their employers," she said. "They face counter charge, if they bring a case against their employers, they may be accused of theft, for instance. When women do complain they often are returned to their employers by authorities who just don't even look into the abuses that women are reporting."

The report quotes one woman as saying that she did not receive her salary for nearly a year and a half, but whenever she asked her employers for it, "they would beat me, or cut me with a knife, or burn me."

The Human Rights Watch report also says Sri Lankan authorities do not give adequate consular¹⁰ protection to the women. It calls on the government to improve monitoring of recruitment agents who often charge excessive fees.

The United Arab Emirates, however, says the report does not take note of positive steps in recent months to improve the condition of temporary foreign workers. The UAE says it plans to introduce a law to protect and regulate the domestic labor force.

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 confinement   

n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限

参考例句：

• He spent eleven years in solitary confinement.他度过了11年的单独监禁。
• The date for my wife's confinement was approaching closer and closer.妻子分娩的日子越来越近了。

3 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

6 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

7 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

8 impunity   

n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除

参考例句：

• You will not escape with impunity.你不可能逃脱惩罚。
• The impunity what compulsory insurance sets does not include escapement.交强险规定的免责范围不包括逃逸。

9 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。

10 consular   

a.领事的

参考例句：

• He has rounded out twenty years in the consular service. 他在领事馆工作已整整20年了。
• Consular invoices are declarations made at the consulate of the importing country. 领事发票是进口国领事馆签发的一种申报书。