Workers Allege Abuse by Kuwaiti Attache

Three Indian women who worked in the McLean home of a Kuwaiti military attache filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that they were brought to the United States illegally and abused and exploited by the diplomat and his wife.

One of the women, Mani Kumari Sabbithi, fled the family's home after the diplomat and his wife became angry over a mistake she made in preparing a meal for the couple's triplets, then 1 year old, the suit alleges.

The wife, Maysaa Al Omar, pulled Sabbithi's hair and threatened to cut off her tongue, the suit alleges. The husband, Maj. Waleed Al Saleh, started screaming at Sabbithi and pushed her to the floor, knocking her out, the suit alleges.

Soon after, Sabbithi went to the home of a sympathetic neighbor to whom the women had confided their problems, according to the lawsuit.

A few months later, in January 2006, the other two workers, Joquina Quadros and Gila Sixtina Fernandes, fled as well, pretending they were going upstairs to do laundry but instead ducking out while their bosses were in the basement, the lawsuit said.

Filed against the couple and the government of Kuwait, the lawsuit is the latest legal effort to curb the exploitation of foreign domestic workers, particularly by diplomats, whose immunity can make it difficult for authorities to investigate allegations of abuse, let alone act to halt such conduct.

Jasem Albudaiwi, the first secretary of the Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington, said Kuwaiti officials learned of the allegations yesterday after media inquiries about the lawsuit and were not able to immediately address the accusations.

"We're investigating all aspects," Albudaiwi said. "We in the embassy don't tolerate any sort of abuse, especially of domestic helpers."

Al Saleh, who lives in the 7000 block of Elizabeth Drive, did not respond to a request made through an embassy spokeswoman for comment on the allegations against him and his wife.

The lawsuit was filed at the federal courthouse in Washington by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union. It seeks an unspecified amount of damages for economic losses as well as mental and emotional anguish.

Like many domestic workers who accompany expatriates on assignments to the United States, the women had been granted visas that are conditioned on their continued employment with the person who sponsored them -- a condition that gives the employer tremendous leverage and that can pose a perilous obstacle to filing a complaint about mistreatment.

In this case, the women came from impoverished backgrounds in rural India, the suit said. They alleged a range of abuse, threats and exploitation. At least two of the women were given contracts promising salaries of roughly $1,300 a month for eight-hour work days, the suit alleges. Instead, they were forced to work up to 12 to 18 hours every day doing "backbreaking work" by caring for the couple's four children and performing numerous household chores, the suit said. They were paid just a few hundred dollars a month, according to the suit.

In addition, the money was never given directly to them but instead was sent to relatives in the Middle East, the suit alleges.

Now living in New York state, Fernandes, 39, Quadros, 40, and Sabbithi, 33, have been granted special temporary visas issued to victims of human trafficking, said a lawyer for the women, Claudia Flores of the ACLU.

The ACLU's Women's Rights Project in New York and the law firm Dechert LLP drafted the suit, which alleges human trafficking, forced labor, involuntary servitude, false imprisonment, assault, battery and other violations of the law.

Flores said arguments of diplomatic immunity can be overcome if the case involves a commercial relationship outside the scope of official responsibilities. In those instances, she said, the diplomat's conduct might not be covered by the Vienna Convention.

The exploitation of foreign domestic workers, particularly from South Asia, is a pervasive problem in Kuwait, the lawsuit claims, citing reports by the U.S. State Department and the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.