Parallel Lives

I have recently finished reading a book called 'Slavery' by Mende Nazer. It is the story of her life which starts out as a happy child in the Nuba mountains in Sudan full of the memories of village life until she was captured, at the age of twelve, by Arab raiders. She then spent the next decade as a domestic slave in Khartoum and London without pay and subjected to all sorts of abuse as she tended to her duties. Mende had the courage to escape whilst she was enslaved in London in September 2000. She thought she would be able to gain political asylum through the gates of freedom. It took two long years, and appeals, but now she is free from slavery.

It beggars belief that in the twenty-first century there are people like Mende, not just a handful in the odd country here and there, but thousands all over the world, who live in fear of abuse and are treated so inhumanely. As the current global economic crisis is starting to affect the way we live our own lives and we tighten up our monetary belts another notch, I think we should consider how lucky we are. There are young people, like Mende, living in a world of modern day slavery. They have nothing, no identity and they actually do not officially exist. They are so scared to do anything so much as to upset their masters, or to think about escape, that their plight goes un-noticed to the rest of the world. They endure suffering that is beyond our contemplation.

When Mende finally escaped she was helped by sympathetic people who became her closest friends to apply for asylum. This was initially rejected and it took a full two years to get final approval because the British system stubbornly failed to recognise the truth. Even so when she was officially allowed to stay in England, her captors were not prosecuted and have been allowed to go free. What effect this has had on the rest her family in Sudan is not known, but they live in fear of their lives!

What drives people to abuse a helpless and innocent individual to such extremes? Why do they exert such control, deception, dishonesty and power to the extent that physical harm and often death is the final result. How many poor victims have taken their own lives when they reach the point of not being able to take any more abuse, but they have nowhere to turn to because their masters have completely isolated them from the rest of the world?

During 2007 a campaign for justice for Vinceta Flores was started in Hong Kong. Vinceta was a Filipino domestic helper who had worked for the same family in Discovery Bay on Lantau Island for twelve years. In April Vinceta was seen leaving the house dressed in only her pyjamas and was found four days later drowned in Tung Chung harbour on the opposite side of the island. In the weeks following her death it became clear that there were suspicious circumstances and a action group was formed to ensure that the correct formalities of autopsy, coroner's report and hearing reached a fair conclusion about how she died. In November the jury delivered a verdict of suicide, but although that decision has been accepted there is doubt whether that conclusion is correct.

During the campaign several cases of cruelty towards domestic helpers, particularly Filipinos, came to light. Beth's story is one where her employer's fiance thrust a knife into her face because of some small mistake. There are many other stories mainly to do with contract violations, for example not allowing time off or not paying the minimum wage, that have come to light and evidence that the authorities sweep the accusations under the carpet.

The Filipinos are lovely people who go to Hong Kong (and elsewhere) out of desperation to earn money for their families back home. Usually this money is to help them survive and to gain a better education for their sons and daughters so they at least have a chance to escape the extreme poverty in their homeland. Some of them are caught in the trap of having to pay back the loans they incurred to leave the Philippines and get accommodation and a job in their new country. They are over charged and have to pay this back before they can send money home for the family. Not all of them work as domestic helpers and get drawn into the seedy world of prostitution, and their plight is often worse.

Sadly by researching on the Internet I have found similar stories in Singapore.

Because labour is not expensive in Asia employing domestic help is achievable and fashionable to those that have busy lives, big homes and families, and high roller salaries. This is obviously is not the case in England where the nearest we get to this way of life is the nursing home to look after the elderly or privately run child care facilities to look after the kids. The age of the domestic servant disappeared in the 1930's. My grandmother was a domestic servant around this time.

As a westerner I can see poverty all over Asia and I can see the perpetual effort to escape from this trap. I am now beginning to realise the price some of these industrious people are paying for their efforts. I must state there is a large number who are quite happy with their arrangements and you can see some employers treat their employees as part of their family. Certainly you can sense this each Sunday in downtown Hong Kong where they congregate to enjoy the company of their friends. Also some of the warmest smiles come from these girls as they happily go about shopping or walking the dog.

But if I thought Mende's story was simply confined to the Sudanese, now I know there is an element of abuse like this in every corner of the globe. So whilst I worry about collapse of the global economy and I begin to experience a little bit of financial bewilderment myself, I know it does not compare to the lifetime of suffering and misery that Mende, Vinceta and Beth have endured and millions like them continue to do so, in silence, because no one can hear the cries for help.