Kuwaiti Diplomat Living in Va. Accused of Domestic Slavery

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A Kuwaiti diplomat and his wife regularly beat and abused three domestic workers who were kept under conditions akin to slavery before they finally escaped, according to a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on behalf of the three workers by the American Civil Liberties Union, also names the Kuwaiti government as a defendant for enabling the alleged abuse carried out by its employee.

The lawsuit claims violations of labor laws, anti-trafficking laws, as well as the 13th Amendment, which prohibits slavery. It also states that the couple used diplomatic immunity to avoid criminal charges.

The three women, originally from India, said they came to the United States in the summer of 2005 to work as domestic help for Maj. Waleed Al Saleh, an embassy attache, and his wife, Maysaa Al Omar. The workers were promised monthly wages of $1,280 to work a six-day, 48-hour week, according to the lawsuit.

Instead, the women were regularly subjected to physical abuse and constant duty taking care of the couple's home and four children, including year-old triplets. The women were allowed out of the McLean home only once a month to attend church services.

The lawsuit alleges that the women only received a fraction of their promised wages, which were sent directly to family members overseas. The couple took the women's passports from them.

The alleged abuse included death threats, pulled hair, and beatings - including one with a box of frozen chicken.

The couple demanded that all three triplets' diapers be changed every two hours, whether they were soiled or not. The couple also demanded that all their laundry be ironed, including underwear, according to the lawsuit.

The women said in the lawsuit that they were afraid they would be killed if they fled the home. One of the women finally escaped in October 2005 to the home of a neighbor, who called police. The two other women fled a few months later.

"I was scared of my employers and believed that if I ran away or sought help they would harm me or maybe even kill me," said Kumari Sabbithi, who fled in October after allegedly being knocked unconscious in a beating. "I believed that I had no choice but to continue working for them even though they beat me and treated me worse than a slave."

Sabbithi and the other two plaintiffs, Joaquina Quadros and Tina Fernandes, now live in New York.

"No form of immunity should protect diplomats who abuse and exploit their employees and treat them like slaves," said Claudia Flores, an attorney with the ACLU Women's Rights Project, in a statement. "Unfortunately this kind of mistreatment is not unique as we have seen domestic workers for many diplomats suffer in abusive employment conditions."

A spokeswoman for Fairfax County Police said Wednesday she could not immediately determine the results of any police investigation because records from 2005 were not readily available.

Calls to the Kuwaiti embassy were not returned Wednesday, and efforts to reach Al Saleh by phone were unsuccessful.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)