Plight of Kuwait's maids in the spotlight

For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-01-27

The vice president of the Philippines is making an emergency trip to Kuwait to plead for clemency in the case of a Filipina maid who was sentenced to death for murdering her employer's daughter, The National reported Wednesday (January 27th). Details about the case have not been made public. Jakatia Pawa was sentenced to death in 2008 for stabbing her employer's daughter to death. The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeals earlier this month.

Pawa's lawyer and activist groups questioned the evidence, charging that the murder weapon, a knife, did not have Pawa's fingerprints on it and her clothes showed no signs of blood stains. Maids working in Kuwait do so with little protection from local laws, the paper reported. More than 200 women who ran away from their employers are staying at the Philippine embassy while they wait for resolution on their own cases. The embassy estimates that 150,000 of its nationals are working in Kuwait.

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