Former domestic worker alleges ‘slavery-like conditions’
After the Devyani Khobragade episode, a senior New York-based Bangladeshi diplomat now faces a lawsuit with a former domestic worker alleging that he was forced to work under oppressive, “slavery-like conditions”.
But the key difference from the Khobragade case is that this is a civil lawsuit brought by the worker — and not a criminal case instituted by the US authorities involving any arrest or humiliating strip-search that the Indian diplomat had been subjected to last December, triggering an unprecedented diplomatic row between New Delhi and Washington.
The lawsuit that seeks unspecified damages has been filed by Mashud Parves Rana in Manhattan Federal Court against Bangladesh’s Consul General, Monirul Islam, and his wife, Fahima Tahsina Prova.
In court papers, cited by The New York Daily News, Rana has alleged that the diplomat and his wife forced him to work daily from 6.30 am to 11 pm, seven days a week for 18 months — and never paid him a dime.
like Sangeeta Richards, the maid who lodged the complaint against Khobragade, Rana has alleged that the Bangladesh diplomat had lured him to the United States with false promises of $3,000 monthly wages and then forced him to labour in “slavery-like conditions” in their sprawling, $8,000-a-month apartment.
The suit goes on to allege that Rana was barred by the diplomat and his wife “from leaving their residence under his own volition, threatening to beat him or kill him, threatening that the police will arrest him or kill him if he left their residence, physically assaulting him on at least two occasions, (and) maintaining possession over Mr Rana’s passport and visa”.
While there was no immediate public response from the diplomat, a Bangladeshi online journal (bdnews24.com) reported that Islam has dismissed the allegations as baseless and that Rana has brought up the lawsuit in a bid to gain permanent residency in the United States.
The journal quoted Islam as saying that having been named Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Morocco, he had asked Rana earlier this month if he would accompany them to the African country. But Rana, according to Islam, declined the offer saying his sole purpose was to remain in the US by gaining permanent residency.
Interestingly, Rana is being represented by the same lawyer and organisation (Dana Sussman of Safe Horizon) who took up Richards’ complaint of underpayment and exploitation against Khobragade. Richards had alleged that she was paid a salary of just over $1 an hour as against the legal minimum US wage of $7.25 an hour.
Rana’s suit is similar to two other civil cases brought up against two other senior Indian diplomats in the New York consulate in recent years – former Consul General Prabhu Dayal in June 2011 and former Press Counsellor Neena Malhotra in February 2012.
The case against Dayal was brought up by his former housekeeper, Santosh Bharadwaj in June 2011 – nearly 17 months after she had left his apartment without a trace. Despite denials of all her allegations, the Indian Government finally settled the case out of court, reportedly forking out $75,000 to the maid.
The case against Malhotra was brought up by her maid, Shanti Gurung, a year after she went missing. A New York court fined Malhotra $1.5 million, but having gone back to New Delhi on completion of her US stint, the diplomat moved the Delhi High Court, which upheld her assertion of diplomatic immunity and ruled that any order passed by the US court would be tantamount to interference with the Indian government’s right to determine the terms and conditions of the employment of its diplomatic officers posted abroad.