We've previously reported about the case of Lakshmi Surampudi, an Indian woman who had worked as a maid in Bahrain. She was abused for years and found malnourished and almost blind after fleeing her sponsor. She was forced to sleep on a towel on the floor, and was “regularly hit, kicked, stamped on, poked in the eye with a key and dragged by her hair or ears by her sponsor’s ex-wife”.
After months of rehabilitation and surgeries, Surampudi recently reunited - Opens in new tabwith her family in India. However, Bahraini authorities are yet to charge the sponsor and his ex-wife for abusing Surampudi and withholding her pay. According to Noora Feleyfel of the Migrant Workers Protection Society, which took care of Surampudi and raised money for her, "the case was filed in July and it is now December and the courts have not announced a date for the hearing yet."UPDATE, June 23, 2010: Nearly a year from when the case was filed with the police / public prosecution and Lakshmi Surampudi still hasn't received a court hearing date. (Information provided by the Bahraini Migrant Workers Protection Society)