~ Was given leftover food and never saw a doctor on the island. ~
Georgetown/ PHILIPSBURG: --- Vanessa also known as Indira Singh a Guyanese national who was brought to St. Maarten by another Guyanese identified as Jameela Singh (MAI) on or about 20 years ago to work as a domestic worker find herself in an enslaved situation where she was made to work and not being paid for her services.
The woman who recently returned to Guyana after her relatives managed to locate Mai and demanded that she send back Indira to her native country since she was living as a slave and mistreated.
The family including the mother of Indira told SMN News that Mai went to her home some 20 years ago and told her that she was bringing her daughter to St. Maarten to work as a domestic worker and that she will adopt her as a daughter. The elderly mother said back then Mai convinced her and her daughter that she will be paid much more than she was earning in Guyana.
The elderly woman said back then her daughter who is illiterate was working for a relative of Mai in Guyana and that is how Mai met her daughter, she said ever since her daughter came to St. Maarten she had no contact with Mai or her daughter as Mai did not give her any phone numbers. However, she was of the opinion that her daughter was in good care because Mai promised her to take care of her daughter even though she was a grown woman. The mother explained that her daughter was in an abusive relationship and leaving Guyana came at a time when she was desperate to get away from her abusive common-law husband.
“Mai took me to a Justice of Peace to make a paper to say she adopted my daughter; I signed that paper but was not given a copy. Because she told me she hadn’t any daughters and that she would care of my daughter I believed her.”
The elderly woman said one of Mai’s granddaughters created a Facebook profile for Indira and showed her how to call her other relatives. “This was a blessing in disguise because Indira would call my daughter-in-law but Mai was always there and so she did not tell us what she was going through due to fear of being beaten or starved.”
“It was not until Indira called one of her relatives in Canada one evening and Mai was unaware who she was speaking to and she began abusing Indira verbally and demanding to know who she was speaking to and where the person was.” The elderly mother said that it was that person who called her and told her that Indira's living condition on St. Maarten was not good and that Indira is being abused by Mai. I immediately started to enquire from my daughter whenever she called, but she would not speak up fearing she would be victimized. Despite that, I demanded that Mai purchase a ticket and send my daughter back to her country, but Mai used the pandemic and the lockdown to her advantage and did not comply immediately.”
The mother said that Indira went to another home to work for two days, and it was from there she asked the woman to make contact with her family and relate her nightmare. That woman and her son gave Indira a few day's work and that was how she managed to save $480.00 which she traveled home with. $480.00 is what my daughter earned over a period of 20 years the woman explained.
Indira’s nightmare.
In speaking to Indira, she told SMN News that when she first came to St. Maarten 20 years ago, Mai took her to sell tee-shirts and other tourist-related items on the French side “View Point” where Mai was operating a booth. She said she would work there during the day and in the evening, she had to clean the house and do all the domestic chores, and not once was she paid. She said Mai would tell her she is saving her money for her so she could go back to Guyana.
“One day while I was working at the booth selling tee shirts I was arrested and deported because I had no legal documents. Mai did not even give the PAF my passport and she did not give me the money she said she saved for me.” Indira recounted.
Indira said after arriving in Guyana Mai instructed her mother to get a new passport for her and that Mai would purchase a ticket for her which she did. Indira explained that she came back to St. Maarten because Mai had her money, she was saving for her for seven years. She also explained that back then Mai’s husband treated her well and Mai could not abuse her physically or verbally. She said when she came back, she resumed working at the booth and at Mai’s house until the booths closed.
Later she explained that she began working for "Discover Kids Playschool" in Dutch Quarter and she was paid $200.00 a month to work from 7 am to 5 pm. Indira said whenever she gets her $200.00 salary Mai would take $100.00 for groceries. She said she worked at the playschool until the pandemic started and after that, she continued to work at Mai’s house as a domestic worker. “Things became worse when Mai would give me leftover food while she cooked fresh food for herself and family, whenever she cooked roti she would tell me that she did not cook that for me and that I should buy bread.”
The mother of Indira and her sister Pinky and her sister-in-law all spoke to SMN News as they recounted their relatives’ ordeal, the three women said that they had to threaten Mai by telling her that they would get people to call the police to intervene so that Indira could go back to her family. They said that Mai even cursed their elderly mother when she told her that she was ill and needed to see her daughter. “I want to state that I never give away my daughter, my daughter was already a grown woman, she was manipulated by Mai who met her in Guyana. I had no idea that Mai who seemed as a good person would use my daughter to this extent and not even buy her proper clothing or took her to a doctor. We are talking about a human being treated this way while she was working day and night in a foreign country.”
They said Mai told them how much money she spent on the airline ticket and Antigenic test for Indira to travel but at no time did she tell them about the money she owed Indira for the years she worked for her on St. Maarten. The family explained that when Indira returned to Guyana last Friday evening, they all burst into tears when they saw how rugged she was dressed and the oversized rubber slipper she had on her feet. Her mother Betty said that her daughter did not have proper undergarments and the clothing her daughter took back to Guyana after 20 years are all rags. The only money she had in her possession is $480.00 which she worked for and kept to go home.
Indira’s mental and physical health.
The family said Indira is in very bad health since she was never taken to see a doctor. The family said Indira is swollen, her stomach, two legs, and face are all swollen, and that they are now busy taking her to doctors in Guyana to do the necessary tests to diagnose her condition. Her mother said she wished authorities could pick up her daughter’s case because slavery ended and it’s unfair to see how Mai treated her daughter and did not pay her. “Can you imagine the living conditions she had my daughter in, even the room she was sleeping in Mai took away and had her sleeping in the hallway for a few years? This is not humane, my family is poor but we feed our dogs the same food we eat every day and not stale food.”
Several relatives of Mai contacted the family when they heard she was heading back to Guyana after years of abuse and commended the family for doing all they could to get Indira out of the situation she was in. Indira’s family said they wished the people that are calling them now to check on Indira did that when she was in St. Maarten, she wished they had taken the time to even reach out to her or other children prior to last week.
