DUBAI — The Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) has come to the rescue of an Ethiopian housemaid who plunged from the second-floor balcony of her sponsor’s villa while cleaning.
The housemaid suffered fractures and will need
medical treatment for at least six months
[Photo: Bassma Al Jandaly/Gulf News]
Senior DNRD officials are negotiating with her sponsor, whom it is alleged has not paid her since she started working for him, and who has threatened to deport her even though she requires medical attention.
Bizuwork Girma, the 33-year-old housemaid is currently being treated in Rashid Hospital and has severe injuries. Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director-General of Dubai DNRD told Gulf News it was the responsibility of sponsors to provide medical treatment at their own expense if domestic helpers are injured at work.
“The UAE domestic helpers’ work contract makes it obligatory for sponsors to give all necessary medical treatment for their employees. If it is proved that the sponsor is ignoring the law he will face punishment,” he said.
Full support will be given to Bizuwork, Major General Al Merri added.
Bizuwork, a mother of a four-year-old boy back in her home country, came to work in Dubai in November last year as a housemaid for a British man, his Lebanese wife and their three children.
According to a social worker from the Ethiopian Consulate Bizuwork’s sponsor told them he had sent the money to her sister but her sister said she has not received any money.
“We asked the sponsor to check with the exchange company why the money did not reach the family but the sponsor said he was too busy for such things,” the social worker told Gulf News.
Bizuwork told Gulf News that on the day of the accident she was cleaning her sponsor’s house when she fell off the villa’s second-floor balcony while she was putting a blanket out to air.
Doctors at the hospital said that Bizuwork was suffering from fractures to her back and would need medical treatment for a while.
They said she will be discharged from the hospital in a week’s time. But she has to come back for follow-up treatment for at least six months.
If she does not receive proper treatment she could be permanently paralysed, the doctor said.
According to the consulate’s social worker Bizuwork’s sponsor will not allow her to stay in the UAE for her follow-up treatment and will try to send her back to her home country as soon as she is discharged from the hospital.
Bizuwork tearfully said that she was from a very poor family who live in a small city in Ethiopia. Her father died a long time ago. She left her young son with her mother and came to the UAE in order to be able to work and support them.
Bizuwork said her life would not be easy if she went back to her country while she was in such a poor physical condition. “I will die. I cannot afford to go to hospital,” said Bizuwork.
By Bassma Al Jandaly, Gulf News