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Manila Bulletin

Woman who suffered burns in Saudi returning home

Woman who suffered burns in Saudi returning home

By Roy Mabasa The Filipina domestic worker in Saudi Arabia who accused her employer’s mother of scalding her with boiling water four years ago is scheduled to return to Manila this week and will be reunited with her loved ones on Friday.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) logo (Manila Bulletin file photo) According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh was able to secure the assistance of Saudi authorities in clearing the way for Pahima Alagasi's return to the country. The 30-year-old Alagasi left the Philippines in March 2014 and served as a household service worker in Riyadh but sought refuge at the Embassy two months later after she was hospitalized with serious burns she claimed she sustained after the mother of her employer poured boiling water on her back. The Embassy assisted Alagasi, a separated mother of two from Pikit, North Cotabato, in filing a case of maltreatment against the mother of her employer but this was dismissed after she failed to prove her accusation. Alagasi has been staying at the Embassy’s Bahay Kalinga shelter since then and could not return to the Philippines because her employer filed a counter case against her. The DFA cited the critical role of Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Saud Bin Naif who approved her final exit from the Kingdom after a protracted four-year legal battle with her employer.

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