Live-in nanny sues Brookline couple, saying they enslaved her
BROOKLINE -- An Indian woman who worked as a live-in nanny and maid for a Brookline couple has sued her former employers for allegedly treating her like a slave.
Naseem Mohamed Siraj, 35, filed a lawsuit in federal court last week accusing Tahira Juma, a Boston University medical student, and her husband, Saleem Alkhaburi, an engineer, of "engaging in human trafficking and modern day slavery."
Siraj accuses the couple, who emigrated from Oman, of paying her a total of $1,250 for working 14 hours a day for 15 months, of allowing their children to physically and verbally abuse her, and of refusing to return her passport or allow her out of their home alone.
At the family's Coolidge Corner home yesterday in a high-rise apartment building on Marion Street, Juma said, "I deny everything. That's it."
Siraj is seeking $250,000 in punitive damages and $150,000 in back pay, along with legal fees. Her lawyer, Damon P. Hart, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
After escaping earlier this year through a "chance encounter with a compassionate and concerned neighbor," Siraj now lives in a shelter, according to the suit. Siraj first worked for the couple in Oman, which has a substantial population of Indian laborers. The couple told her that she had no choice but to move with them to the United States because they would not give her any money to return to India, the lawsuit alleges.
Siraj reluctantly agreed to come here and was given a contract to spend 40 hours a week caring for one of the couple's children for $920 per month, the lawsuit says. The contract stated that Siraj would be given two days off each week, earn overtime for additional work, be paid at least once a month, and receive free airfare, according to the lawsuit.
After arriving in January 2003, she was forced to care for three to four children, as well as shop, cook, do laundry, and clean the home -- without a day off for six months, the suit says.
"Only after repeated pleading for relief from her ceaseless toil was she finally granted a brief respite of a mere eight hours off each month," the lawsuit says.
After cooking for the family and "hand-feeding the children," Siraj was allowed to eat only leftovers and was forced to sleep with the children and tend to them throughout the night, according to the suit.
The couple promised Siraj that the majority of her wages were being deposited in a savings account in Oman, the suit says. Siraj says she does not have a bank account in Oman and has never been given access to any account.
At one point, according to Siraj's suit, a son of the couple beat her with a baseball bat. When she threatened to leave, she said she was told she would be "arrested and thrown in jail."
