RI maid dies after fall from window

RI maid dies after fall from window

SINGAPORE: A 21-year-old Indonesian maid has died after
falling 16 stories from a window in her employer's high-rise
apartment, police said Tuesday.

The woman fell from the kitchen window Monday morning and was
found lying inside a manhole with her skull fractured, Singapore
police spokesman Chua Chee Wai said.

The Straits Times newspaper reported Tuesday that the woman
was believed to have been hanging out laundry when she fell.

Police cannot identify the woman until her next of kin have
been notified, Chua said, adding that police were investigating
the incident.

Hundreds of thousands of women from across Asia flock to
wealthy Singapore to escape poverty through maid work. Critics
charge that the government does not do enough to provide safety
training for the women, many of whom are unaccustomed to city
life.

Singapore's Ministry of Manpower has said that between 1999
and 2001, 36 maids in the city state fell to their deaths. Ten of
those incidents were labeled suicides. Some of the others fell
while washing windows in high-rise apartments.

The ministry could not be immediately reached for comment
Tuesday. --AP