According to a complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. (thanks, tipster Ashwini!), in the summer of 2005 a Kuwaiti diplomat and his wife brought with them to the United States three Indian women as domestic workers. In order to obtain for the workers the appropriate visas, they presented contracts in which they promised each woman a monthly salary in the range of $1,300 for 8 hours of work per day, 6 days per week.

You know where this story is going. Once established at the residence at 7027 Elizabeth Drive in McLean, Va., according to the complaint, the couple proceeded to demand of the three women that they work non stop, 7 days a week, 18 hours a day, for which they were paid in the range of $250 each month, which they never saw as it was sent directly to their families.

The defendants, Waleed al-Saleh and his wife Maysaa al-Omar, abused the workers physically and emotionally:

They were subjected to threats and verbal and physical abuse, including one particularly violent incident in which Sabbithi was knocked unconscious after being thrown against a counter by Al Saleh. The women were often not allowed time to eat or to use the bathroom and frequently were deprived of food. Two of them were allowed one hour off a month to attend church. The workers had their passports taken away and they were isolated from contact with the external world.

“I was scared of my employers and believed that if I ran away or sought help they would harm me or maybe even kill me,” said Kumari Sabbithi, who is now living in New York. “I believed that I had no choice but to continue working for them even though they beat me and treated me worse than a slave.”

Some examples from the complaint:

Defendant Al Omar’s unending cruel treatment of Ms. Sabbithi included slapping her and hitting her with heavy objects. Defendant Al Omar also pulled her hair, and poked and pushed Ms. abbithi on the chest so regularly that Ms. Sabbithi often bore bruise marks.
On one occasion, after bending Ms. Sabbithi’s fingers and pushing them back towards Ms. Sabbithi’s chest, Defendant Al Omar then struck Ms. Sabbithi’s head against a wall several times.
On another occasion, after hurling a soup spoon at Ms. Sabbithi, Defendant Al Omar struck Ms. Sabbithi’s head with a heavy wooden box. As a result, Ms. Sabbithi had a large lump and a painful and swollen forehead for several days.
On numerous other occasions, Defendant Al Omar also threatened to kill Ms. Sabbithi and send her defiled body back to India. Ms. Sabbithi, who was aware of stories of domestic workers who were killed by their employers, believed these threats.

And it goes on and on: abuse, threats, confinement, horrible living conditions, petty punishments and restrictions, prohibition from approaching doors and windows, prohibition from communicating in languages other than English — which one woman spoke well, one poorly, and one almost not at all.

On a rare occasion when one of the young women was in front of the house by herself, she saw a neighbor across the street, Hector Rodriguez, and wanted to speak to him but was scared to do so. He called her over and she described the situation. He encouraged the women to escape and promised to help them if they did.

When the abuse of Mani Kumari Sabbithi got too extreme, the other women, Joaquina Quadros and Gila Sixtina Fernandes, told her she had to escape or risk being killed. She crossed the street, and Rodriguez called the police, who went to the house to investigate. The couple claimed diplomatic immunity.

Eventually the other two escaped to the neighbor’s house as well. Now all three women are living in New York, and the ACLU along with several private lawyers have filed the case in their behalf against the Kuwaiti couple and the government of Kuwait, which they allege knowingly permitted its diplomats to break American law. You can read the full text of the complaint here.