A Maid's Ordeal

[an3...@anon.penet.fi]

HOUSTON (UPI) -- A U.S. Immigration Court hearing continued Tuesday
for two women who escaped from a Saudi royal family in Houston and said
they fear retaliation, even death, if they are deported.
Sriyani Marian Fernando of Sri Lanka and Josephine Alicog of the
Philippines worked as servants for Prince Saad Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud,
the brother of Saudi King Fahd, and the Prince's former wife, Noora,
while the couple stayed at Houston's posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel in December
1991.
Fernando, 27, testified that she was beaten by family members, on one
occasion for ignoring an order from her superiors by going to a Catholic
church. She told of how she entered into a contract in 1989 to work as a
computer operator in a Saudi hospital but was ordered to babysit for the
royal family nearly 24 hours a day.
Despite the family's vast wealth, Fernando said she was paid only
$100 per month for her services in Saudi Arabia and earned $200 monthly
when the family came to Houston in the summer of 1991. She said the
family reported to U.S. authorities that they were paying her $700 per
month.
Alicog, who once worked as a sales clerk in the Philippines, said she
did whatever the royal family told her to do because she feared
beatings.
Alicog, 36, also said that the government of the Philippines has told
her through a relative to halt her legal battle because the Saudi
government could retaliate against other Filipinos living in Saudi
Arabia.
In a hearing last September, lawyers for Fernando and Alicog said the
women were victims of an international conspiracy to funnel slaves to
Saudi Arabia.
There has been no comment from the royal family on the charges.

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[Christopher Go Chan]

To everyone who thinks "chimay" jokes are funny -- perhaps this news
article will help you see why others don't find jokes concerning domestic
helpers amusing.....

[Dick Bolt]

Yes, remember the flap when a Thai woman excaped from the Saudi Embassy in
DC about 10 years ago. They were holding her virturally as a
slave/prisonor! She was loaned to them by the Thai government.