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Email: [email protected]@batelco.com.bh
Gulf Daily News Tuesday, 13th November 2012 3
A COURT will rule nextmonth in the trial of a man,who allegedly
stole four dif-ferent peoples identity docu-ments, disguised
himself ashis victims and then appliedfor credit cards in
theirnames.
The 32-year-old Indian,who works for a cleaningcompany, is said
to havemade BD9,500 through thescam.
The High Criminal Courtyesterday adjourned his caseto December 9
to issue a ver-dict.
According to court docu-ments, once the man hadbeen issued
credit cards inhis victims names, he thenused them to withdraw
cashfrom ATM machines and tosettle bills at a Manama hotel.
The defendant was caughtafter one of his victims wascontacted by
a bank and wastold him of a credit card he
knew nothing about, prompt-ing a police manhunt.Officers
identified him
using ATM surveillance foot-age, but he has denied
thecharges.
Verdict dateset in identity
scam case
n From left, Ms Manjula, Ms Szalay and MWPS chairwoman Marietta
Dias at the Pressconference
when she arrived. She was alsoforced to work around 21 hoursa
day in two separate house-holds.
Ms Manjula reportedly wentto the police after two years,
but was allegedly ignored.A year later, she approached
them again. But as she wasnot a victim of abuse, shewas referred
to the Labour Ministry.
Ms Manjula later took refugeat the MWPS shelter, whereshe has
been staying for morethan a month.
MWPS action committeehead Liz Szalay said it wascommon for
workers not to
be paid the sal-
ary promisedto them beforethey arrive inBahrain.
It is a prob-lem here andit is blatant,she said dur-ing a
Pressconference atthe society inAdliya yester-day.
You seeadvertisementsfor BD60
posted up butthere is no SriLankan consu-lar or embassyhere.
B e c a u s ethere is no
representativehere, workersand especially
Sri Lankans and Ethiopians aretaken advantage of.
Ms Manjula, who has a sev-en-year-old son, has filed a
police complaint against her sponsor claiming she was heldunder
duress.
However, the MWPS say sheis set to return home pennilessafter
lengthy negotiations withher sponsor about her sever-ance pay broke
down.
The organisation will alsohave to fund her air ticket.
She signed her contract inSri Lanka at the Sri LankanBureau of
Foreign Employmentthat she would be receivingBD85 but she got just
BD60,said Ms Szalay.
By AHMED AL OMARI
VICTIMS of human traf-ficking are being denied
just ice because casesare taking too long tocome to court, it
has beenclaimed.
Many low-income work-ers opt to go home rather than wait for
justice as theyare unable to work until averdict is issued and
cannotafford to stop earning moneyto feed their families.
Activists say while the police, Labour Ministr yand General
Directorate of
Nationality Passports andRes idency
( G D N P R )a c k n o w l -edge the
problem , alack of com-municationis hamper-ing effortsto
pros-ecute thoseresponsible.
T h ecases takesuch along timeto come tocourt, saidM i g r a n
tW o r k e r sPro tec t ionS o c i e t y( M W P S )g e n e r a l -s
e c r e t a r yB e v e r l e yHamadeh.
Regrettably, sometimeswe tell our clients to gohome because it
will betoo expensive as they cantwork or switch sponsorswhile
things are in court.
Ms Hamadehs commentscome after it emerged a25-year-old Sri
Lankan had
been rescued after allegedly being held against her will by her
sponsor for almost18 months.
Velusundaram Manjulaarrived in the country in2009 to work as a
house-maid for a Bahraini family.
Activists say she was promised a salary of BD85a month, but got
only BD60
She worked in two housesat the same time the daugh-ters house
and the mothers.
She worked 22 hours a dayfor only BD60 and still had to
buy her own shampoo, soap,
uniform, food and even her bed sheet.
[email protected]
Sometimes we tell our clients to go home because it will be too
expensive as they cant work or switch sponsors while things
are in court
Trafficking victimdeniedjustice
