I was working all the time. I would have lunch at 16:00 ... I got no days off. I couldn’t go to church. At the beginning, she would sometimes give me a 30 minute break, and let me go to sleep at 22:00. Later, I got no break, and I’d go to sleep at midnight.
Once she gave me cheese with mould on it. She said, ‘it’s good enough for you’.
[When one of the maids left the house after a year without being paid, the wife physically assaulted Maria and another woman working in the house.]
She was angry about the girl who left. She pushed my head into the toilet and pulled my hair. I cried. She said, ‘stand up, I’ll send you to the agency.’ The other girl also cried. Madam pushed her too. When the girl tried to leave the manager pushed her. The girl said, ‘no, no’ and the manager pushed her again. I hid in the kitchen with the children. I was afraid.
I left was because I was never paid… I was always crying and Madame was angry at me all the time. Before I escaped, I asked God to give me a sign. When an alarm rang at the house, I thought that was the sign that I could go home. They had a camera in the house to watch us so I closed the kitchen door so the camera couldn’t see me. The key was in the door; I got outside. I walked and walked.
I saw a guard, and he said, 'where is your ID?' I said sorry. I went to the mall, and saw a guard there, and asked for a taxi. He asked why I needed a taxi. He asked if I had a problem; I said no. I saw a Filipina, and I said, ‘please help me.’ She said, ‘sorry, I’m busy.’ I went back to the mall to get a taxi. I said ‘sir, please send me to the airport’. [The driver] asked me why I was going to the airport. I said I was going on vacation.
Last week I went to the deportation centre, they said that without a passport, I can’t leave.
Narrative provided by Amnesty International
