本會聯署以下信件，要求印度總理正視其國民違法剋扣家務工工資。
領事犯法，與民同罪，還家務工公道！
December 20, 2013
Dr. Manmohan Singh
The Prime Minister of India
Your Excellency,
The International Domestic Workers
Federation, joined by the undersigned 20 Hong Kong domestic workers, migrant and labour groups in Hong Kong, express strong
outrage at the Indian government’s reaction to the case of visa fraud and
exploitation of her domestic worker against Deputy Consul General Devyani
Khobragade in the United States. In its dealing of the case, the Indian
government is only seeking to protect the dignity and honour of Ms. Khobragade,
and has shown a complete lack of respect for the underlying issue – that of the
abuse and exploitation of a domestic worker by a senior official.
What Ms. Khobragade has done is not an
uncommon practice among diplomats and government officials. It is difficult to expose such crimes as
domestic workers, in their vulnerable and terrified state, are often unable to
bring such employers to justice.
While we condemn the alleged strip search
and cavity search that Ms. Khobragade was subjected to, it is our belief that
the outrage over her arrest and mis-treatment by officials cannot camouflage
the deeper questions raised by the case. In only speaking up for the deputy
consular general, the Indian government has belittled a grave and serious
concern of labour rights violation, by turning it into a foreign policy issue.
We believe India, and countries around the
world, need to be equally outraged for the plight of the exploited domestic
worker, who is also an Indian citizen. Globally, governments have often turned
a blind eye to similar cases and we support the United States government in
investigating and pursuing this case.
We strongly demand your Excellence to take
steps to ensure that Ms. Khobragade be subject to the prosecution through a
fair trial in the United States so that justice will be upheld for the domestic
worker in question. We further demand
your government to publicly recognize that the rights of the domestic worker
have been violated and compensate her and her family. Finally, we urge your government to ratify the ILO convention 189
and implement legislations to protect the rights of all domestic workers
working at home and abroad.
Yours truly
The Association for the Advancement of Feminism有關此事的更多資料，可參考以下連結︰
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/
http://www.justice.gov/usao/
http://www.idwn.info/activities （發起上述聯署的團體之一）
