Dubai: Emilia (35) from Puttur Rescued from Cruel Mangalorean Family
from Daijiworld's investigative team in Dubai
Dubai, Feb 19: Sad stories of housemaids being ill-treated by compatriots in UAE continue to get exposed one after another.
In one of such unfortunate cases that have come to light in recent times, Emilia Lobo, a 35-year-old woman hailing from Puttur, had come to the UAE to improve the financial lot of her family.
Sumita, a Catholic woman from Puttur region, along with her husband Rohan, had promised Emilia of a housemaid's job in their house when they were on vacation back home last year.
Having known the family well, Emilia decided to come to work in their house in Dubai to facilitate the education of her two teenaged children, a boy and girl. Emilia's husband works in an MRF coffee estate in Chikmagalur, but the earnings were not quite enough for the better education of children and future of the family.
Emilia
Emilia, like any other woman, came here in June 2006 with many dreams, but it took just little over a month to see her dream shattered. The first thing that she learnt was that the head of the house Rohan left her wife Sumita (aged around 33) and went back to India. And it look very little time for Emilia to learn that Sumita is not of decent character. She found that Sumita was emotionally involved with a much younger man staying in her house who belonged to a different faith.
Emilia's real difficulties began within three months of her arrival to the UAE. She was forced to baby-sit more than 10 children besides housekeeping, and look after Sumita's four-year-old daughter. She was made to sleep in the kitchen, being given newspapers instead of clothes and bedsheets.
She was in tears as she narrated a certain incident:
"I was a slave in her house.She (Sumita) cannot be a human being. She is a black patch on the entire womankind. She beat me many times for no reason or some silly mistake of mine. But her four-year old daughter also started following her mother's example by beating another baby under Sumita's baby-sitting care. When that child was injured and blood was oozing out, I got scared. I managed to stop the bleeding and rescued that child from further injury. But when madame (Sumita) came home in the evening, she blamed me for this incident. She started beating me left and right...I tolerated this, but I could not tolerate when a man who had an affair with madame began lashing me with a belt. He regularly gave me lashings for silly reasons..the behaviour of this 'couple' was absolutely out of control.."
Concern back home and plea for rescue:
Emilia had been denied of basic human rights. Her living conditions were poor. She was not even allowed to eat proper food, never paid a single penny for her work. She was never allowed to even touch the telephone. She wanted to narrate her condition to her husband back home but she was waiting for the right opportunity to convey the message.
One day she requested the parent of one of the kids under my baby-sitting care, who had come to collect his son, to use his phone. She explained her pathetic status and he obliged her by allowing her to use the mobile to call her husband. And she explained everything on the phone.
Understanding her difficulties, her husband back home launched public awareness and even the local TV channels telecast the problems Emilia was facing, by showing her photos. Emilia's husband contacted an acquaintance Naveen, who is a businessman, to trace Emilia, but he never got the opportunity to talk to her. Naveen even gave a complaint to the immigration officials, but it went in vain as he did not have any proof. Moreover, Emilia's visa was not registered with Sumita's sponsorship. it was bought for money from a local !. No legal entities could help her to relieve her from her sad status.
Upon a complaint lodged with the Immigration and police station, Emilia's sponsor was called for interrogation and the sponsor surrendered her passport, claiming that she has been absconding !
People to Emilia's Rescue:
Perhaps a glimmer of hope of rescue came to Emilia when Sumita decided to put up two bachelors in her house to share the accommodation. Sumita's greed for money increased as she thought she could earn some more money by letting a room for bachelors. While two Mangalorean bachelors took up the room, she had warned Emilia not to talk to these two or to interfere with any other matters with them. But as Sumita's good luck would have it, one fine day she got an opportunity to use the telephone of one of the bachelors and managed to speak to her husband back home.
For the next few days, she was able to communicate with her husband, besides husband's friend Naveen and one of her relatives who also was working as a maid with a family in Dubai.
Dayan D`Souza - a saviour once again
Dayan D`Souza is a community leader, who has been a key figure in many such rescue cases, especially three years back when he, along with Frank D`Souza of Shezan Restaurant, rescued a young girl who was forced into prostitution after landing here with a work visa. Dayan once again has been the saviour, this time for Emilia.
Emilia managed to get Dayan's number and narrated her condition to him. She gave him the numbers of her husband and Naveen.
After serious discussions and plans, Dayan planned to take her out of Sumita's house.
Jan 29, 2007 :
Dayan contacted Emilia through the mobile number of one of the sharing bachelors. He worked out some plan for her on how to come out of the house.
Jan 30, 2007:
4.30 am: Emilia got up early as everyone was sleeping and came out with a small plastic bag consisting of her clothes, including blood stained attire, which was a proof for beatings from Sumita as well as her man.
4.45 am: While walking a little ahead of the building, she spotted a Bengali boy who was washing a car, begged him to use the mobile and called Dayan as planned. Dayan advised her to pick a taxi and come near the Lulu Supermarket in Karama.
5.10 am: She found a taxi, but did not know what to say. She requested the driver to give a missed call to Dayan's number. Dayan guided the taxi driver to bring her near the Lulu Center area where Dayan resides
5.55 am: Taxi reaches Karama. A big smile and relief on Emilia's face.
Same morning, Dayan took her to the Indian Consulate and handed her over to them for further proceedings and action.
"The Indian consulate was very cooperative and offered full assistance in helping Emilia. They gave shelter to Emilia in their cell, and they looked after her very well. They contacted the immigration and police station," says Dayan, appreciating the work done by Indian Consulate in Dubai.
The Consulate even summoned Sumita, but she never turned up. When the immigration summoned he, she stated that Emilia was never in her house, and that she did not even know who she was !
Daijiworld tried to contact Sumita several times, but she never bothered to respond!
The original sponsor of Emilia turned out to be a good human being and he offered air ticket for Emilia's departure and helped in clearing the papers.
Timely and heroic intervention by Dayan has helped to rescue yet another woman who was virtually under house arrest.
Daijiworld managed to speak to Emilia while she was in her Indian Consulate cell. She has no words to express, while in tears and with a feeling of hatred towards Sumita.
"She is not a human being...she tortured me for no reason. If she did not like me, she should have sent me back. Being a neighbour at our place in Puttur she should not have done this. Her husband is a nice person, but because of Sumita's cruel behaviour and her relationship with the other man, he must have left her...I never knew their internal matter."
"Please make my story available to the public; let people know what kind of inhuman people are around," she said. "Naveen, Dayan, two brothers who joined the sharing accommodation, the parent of a baby who I was looking after - they have all been really helpful to me. I am indebted to them."
"I cannot forget Dayan, he rescued me from hell, took me to his house, arranged telephone conversation with my kids and husband, and I felt as if I was at my own place. Even he paid money for my expenses...," she broke down as she spoke to daijiworld.com
Emilia reached Mumbai safely on February 16, 2007. In Mumbai airport, Clement Lobo of C P Travels, who is another community leader from Mumbai always helping others in critical times, especially in immigration and travel matters in Mumbai airport, welcomed her, gave her food and accommodation, and put her on board a Mumbai-Mangalore bus.