Call for action as Singapore maids fall to their deaths
By Liz Neisloss, CNN
updated 4:31 AM EDT, Wed May 23, 2012
Singapore (CNN) -- It's an annual tragedy in Singapore: domestic maids falling to their deaths from high rise apartments, often while carrying out duties such as cleaning outside windows.
This year's grim tally swiftly ticked up to nine, when an Indonesian worker died on Thursday and then in the early hours on Tuesday, a Burmese worker fell 13 floors to her death.
While the cause of those latest deaths is still under investigation, the other eight deaths occurred while the women were cleaning the outside of windows or reaching out to hang laundry from poles inserted outside the apartment window -- a common sight on the Singapore skyline.
One maid, identified only as Sunarti worked for a family in Singapore for less than three weeks before fleeing because she was asked to clean the outside windows of her employer's apartment daily. She had heard about the deaths but was afraid to anger her employer by saying no.
"I never worked before in a high building," she said. "When I cleaned the windows I just prayed nothing will happen."
So far the number of deaths this year has eclipsed last year's total of four fatalities, according to government figures. Singapore's Ministry of Manpower calculates that since 2000, 75 women have fallen to their deaths while working.
