AMMAN- AN INDONESIAN maid has committed suicide by jumping from the third floor of an Amman hospital after her Jordanian employer demanded she quit her medical treatment, an official said on Tuesday.
'The employer insisted on Monday on taking the 23-year-old woman out of hospital, where she was being treated for head injuries sustained after she fell at his house,' health ministry spokesman Hatem al-Azroai told AFP.
'Doctors told him that she needed to stay at hospital to complete her treatment, but he did not listen and demanded to take the woman, who then jumped from a window.'
The unidentified woman died shortly afterwards 'despite efforts by doctors to save her life,' Mr Azroai said.
'An autopsy report will be submitted to police who are currently investigating the incident,' he added.
London-based Amnesty International said in a report in November that tens of thousands of women workers in Jordan face isolation, exploitation and abuse, with little or no protection from the state.
And Jordan's only National Centre for Human Rights has accused the government of failing to protect the rights of domestic workers, urging reform of labour laws.
The kingdom has some 70,000 women migrant domestic workers, 40,000 of whom are registered.
Many of the workers come from South and South East Asia, mostly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. -- AFP
