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