Maid drops WHO chief abuse case

NONTHABURI: An Ethiopian housemaid who was suing the head of the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) in Thailand and his wife for beating and enslaving her on Monday settled the lawsuit out of court.

Emebet Mono Bezabh, 25, worked as a housemaid for Yonas Tegegn’s family in Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok, for nearly two years. She said she was beaten at least three times a week by Mr Tegegn’s wife, only allowed to eat rice and forced to sleep with the family dog.

“Once she slapped me so much that for a long time afterward, some fluid was coming out of my ear. The wife told the husband, and he brought me medicine,” Ms Bezabh told the Thomson Reuters Foundation via a translator at Nonthaburi provincial court.

Mr Tegegn brought Ms Bezabh from Ethiopia, his home country, to Bangkok in 2013 when he became WHO’s Thailand country representative. She worked there until March this year when she escaped with the help of a neighbour. She said her employers confiscated her passport and denied her any payment.

Mr Tegegn, who came to the court to sign an agreement and pay Ms Bezabh a confidential amount, declined to comment. Ms Bezabh, supported by three Thai organisations — the Foundation for Women, the Human Rights and Development Foundation and the Lawyers Council of Thailand — dropped a criminal case against Mr Tegegn and his wife, and a civil case in the labour court.

The lawsuits accused Mr Tegegn and his wife of violating labour rights and breaching the 2008 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act. A WHO official said Mr Tegegn was put on leave and the WHO brought in an acting country head.

Ms Bezabh’s lawyer Kohnwilai Teppunkoonngam said there was still much to do to improve legal protection for vulnerable workers, especially the domestic workers of diplomats employed by international organisations such as the United Nations.

“International organisation staff in some positions have privileges under international law. In this case, they had privileges and fell under the radar of Thai labour law,” she said.

Ms Bezabh, who was orphaned at the age of five and is illiterate, was uncomfortable in Mr Tegegn’s presence and amazed he agreed to pay her a settlement.

“This money doesn’t make up for what they’ve done to me,” Ms Bezabh said, clicking her tongue and shaking her head.