# U.S. Authorities strip search Indian diplomat (female). **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 17, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591 "2013-12-17T20:02:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/221 "2013-12-19T03:44:03Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > You know, it’s not as if a SWAT team burst through her door. She was arrested in a fairly standard manner (the marshalls waited for her someplace they knew she would be), and treated like anyone who gets arrested instead of having security procedures waived and then assigned a separate cell for her own comfort. I think this is what some of the outrage stems from. Another country’s representative is not the same as anybody else. International relations don’t work like that. The US for instance, has literally gotten a spy, not even a diplomat, off for murder. Anyone remember Raymond Davis? (bold mine) > **[Raymond Allen Davis incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Allen_Davis_incident)** > > Raymond Allen Davis is a former United States Army soldier, private security firm employee, and contractor with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). On January 27, 2011, Davis shot two men in the back, killing both, in Lahore, Pakistan. At least one of the men was armed. Immediately after the shooting, a car coming to aid Davis killed a third Pakistani man, Ibadur Rahman, in a hit and run while speeding on the wrong side of the road. In the aftermath of the incident, the U.S. government c T... > [@](#): > > Raymond Allen Davis is a former United States Army soldier, private security firm employee, and contractor with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[3] On January 27, 2011, Davis killed two reportedly armed men in Lahore, Pakistan. Although **the U.S. government contended that he was protected by diplomatic immunity because of his employment with the U.S. Consulate in Lahore** , Davis was jailed and criminally charged by Pakistani authorities with double murder and the illegal possession of a firearm.[4][5][6] A car coming to aid Davis killed a third Pakistani man in a “hit and run” while speeding on the wrong side of the road.[7] On March 16, 2011, Davis was released after the families of the two killed men were paid $2.4 million in diyya (a form of monetary compensation or blood money). Judges then acquitted him on all charges and Davis immediately departed Pakistan ETA - I once again apologise for the multiple replies. Multi quote functionality is broken at my end ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/222 "2013-12-19T03:54:37Z")
This article goes into the conflict between US and India’s authorities. Jurisdiction being the point of contention. It’s quite a mess to say the least. One of the earliest issues was the employee’s desire to work a 2nd job. The situation deteriorates from there. This is the Article published in India > **[Khobragade: How a visa row sparked a full-scale diplomatic incident](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2526067/Decoding-Khobragade-controversy-How-row-maids-visa-sparked-scale-diplomatic-incident.html)** > > MAIL TODAY EXCLUSIVE: A Mail Today investigation has revealed how the Devyani Khobragade saga unfolded, with the Indian Deputy Consul General finding it difficult even to lodge a missing person's report for her maid Sangeeta Richard. > **[Indian diplomat at center of furor claimed maid was blackmailing her](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2526102/Revealed-Indian-diplomat-center-furor-arrest-paying-maid-slave-wage-called-New-York-cops-six-months-ago-claim-extorted-U-S-visa.html)** > > The female Indian diplomat arrested, strip-searched and charged with visa fraud filed a complaint to NYPD five months ago, claiming that the housekeeper she now stands accused of keeping ‘a virtual slave’ was attempting to blackmail her. > [@](#): > > Sangeeta Richard arrived in the United States with Dr Khobragade in November 2012. MailOnline’s sister paper in India, Mail Today has detailed how she had been offered a job as housekeeper, maid and childminder after her husband, Philip, a driver with the Embassy of Mozambique in New Delhi, approached Dr Khobragade on his wife’s behalf. > > He claimed that they needed the money to educate their children. Dr Khobragade, herself a mother of two with a special interest in education and women’s affairs welcomed Richard into her employ. > > They flew courtesy of the Ministery of External affairs and Sangeeta was issued a visa under her status of India Based Domestic Assistant (IBDA) - a status which did not allow her to work outside. > > Barely four months later she began asking to do just that, according to Dr Khobragade in a complaint filed in the Mehrauli police station on 2 July 2013. > [@](#): > > Bit by bit communications between the Indian and US authorities appear to have become more frayed and tense. The Indian Embassy in Washington took exception to the tone of the letter sent by the State Department pointing out that this was a matter between the Indian government and its employee and not one subject to US regulation. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/223 "2013-12-19T03:55:27Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I’m not asking about your personal views. I am asking about the factual citations presented to you. You have advanced certain claims – for instance, you asserted (without recourse to citation) that this was not a “grave crime” within the meaning of the Convention on Consular Relations. I provided caselaw and citation to statute showing that it was. You have ignored these rebuttals, even though they appear to completely eviscerate your uncited claim. > > Are you going to address them? In the citations you provided, it said that the Department of State has interpreted it to mean a felony, not that it should be interpreted to mean a felony. Could you clarify this for me? Could it be that a when money laundering was the felony that was considered a grave crime it was upheld but when visa fraud is the felony that is considered a grave crime it may be challenged? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/224 "2013-12-19T04:23:43Z")
[The prosecution has put out a detailed statement about the complaint.](http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/December13/KhobragadeStatement.php) [Some more details are summarized here:](http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/18/21955906-secretary-kerry-expresses-regret-to-india-after-diplomat-strip-searched?lite) > [@](#): > > According to the criminal complaint filed against her, Khobragade told the U.S. Embassy in India that her housekeeper would receive $4,500 a month and would work normal hours, at a rate of $9.75 an hour (which does not add up). > > But, after the woman was given a visa to come to the U.S., prosecutors say Khobragade told the woman to sign a second contract — which the U.S. was not told about — paying her $3.31 an hour. > > The housekeeper told U.S. authorities Khobragade subjected her to verbal abuse, paid her less than $3.31 an hour, took her passport away, and told her she had no choice but to continue working under those conditions, prosecutors say. > [@bldysabba](#): > > If room and board are paid for, what costs of living are you talking about Marley? It costs money to eat. It costs money to travel around New York City. It costs money to buy clothes. How complicated is this suppose to be? > [@](#): > > Any costs that she bears for them are at Indian costs. As for the issue of duress, I have yet to read anything that indicates she was risking arrest for just quitting and going back home. If you do have any sources that indicate duress, I’d like to read them I think this was made clear earlier, but now you can see the prosecution saying it directly. > [@](#): > > As also has been reported, legal process was started in India against the victim, attempting to silence her, and attempts were made to compel her to return to India. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/225 "2013-12-19T04:37:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It costs money to eat. It costs money to travel around New York City. It costs money to buy clothes. How complicated is this suppose to be? Room and board includes the cost of eating. And someone coming from India to NYC brings clothes with them. When you live where you work, the travel you have to do ain’t much. It’s not complicated really. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/226 "2013-12-19T04:40:04Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > Room and board includes the cost of eating. And someone coming from India to NYC brings clothes with them. When you live where you work, the travel you have to do ain’t much. It’s not complicated really. You’re probably correct that her costs were minimal if she never went anywhere, didn’t buy anything, and ate all her food where she worked. Remember how you were saying this was nothing like indentured servitude? I think you’re debunking your argument. ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/227 "2013-12-19T04:42:40Z")
> [@Isosleepy](#): > > All i know is that before this thing, I had almost no opinion on India. All i knew was they have a long-standing emnity with Pakistan, Thats basically a bunch of stupid Indians fighting among themselves since pakistani are same looking people who speak same language and have almost same culture and who used to be part of Indian till 1947. > [@](#): > > produce some smart people, Too few for a country of 1.2 billion. > [@](#): > > and are into cricket. they suck at that too. Just tht they are relatively better in cricket than they are in other sports. I see you havent listed indian songs/movies. Check out [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=705255) thread if you care.🙂 > [@JRDelirious](#): > > I would tend to go along with **bldysabba** in the part about wondering what else may be going on in this. Moral Panic about worker exploitation, perhaps? After all, we have not heard the maid’s whole story (though a court in India apparently IS requesting that she be returned there). Maybe combined with an ill-thought-out politically-driven response to pressure from NYC sectors who resent the Immune Class (both UN and regular diplomatic/consular staffs in NY and DC have a public image of abusing their immunity to flout common laws having nothing to do with their official status; as I mentioned earlier, many residents are rubbed the wrong way by this). They really need to do a review of how this was handled. > Meanwhile, **truthSeeker2** , you persist in sounding like you are advocating retaliation for retaliation’s own sake. Absolutely not. Thats just a response that is warranted to most of the posts in this thread. I am all for giving AMericans the time that they need to understand the issue. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/228 "2013-12-19T05:09:27Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > You’re probably correct that her costs were minimal if she never went anywhere, didn’t buy anything, and ate all her food where she worked. Remember how you were saying this was nothing like indentured servitude? I think you’re debunking your argument. So because all her food was provided for, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to eat, and because she’s provided accommodation where she worked, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to travel or live, she becomes an indentured labourer? Are you trying to make yourself sound absurd? And on top of that she’s still making much more money than she would at home, which she can in effect save all of, and use, as a news report suggests she wanted to when her husband approached the consul officer for the job, for her children’s education. Instead, a few months into the job that she solicited, she’s gone missing (at this stage why not just go home if she was unhappy with her working conditions?) found herself a lawyer who wants her released from the conditions of her visa, come up with a damages claim and found a visa statute which provides for her family to come join her. More power to her, but it is not at all clear to me that she was brutally or otherwise being exploited in any of this. ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/229 "2013-12-19T05:15:51Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > So because all her food was provided for, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to eat, and because she’s provided accommodation where she worked, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to travel or live, she becomes an indentured labourer? Are you trying to make yourself sound absurd? And on top of that she’s still making much more money than she would at home, which she can in effect save all of, and use, as a news report suggests she wanted to when her husband approached the consul officer for the job, for her children’s education. Instead, a few months into the job that she solicited, she’s gone missing (at this stage why not just go home if she was unhappy with her working conditions?) found herself a lawyer who wants her released from the conditions of her visa, come up with a damages claim and found a visa statute which provides for her family to come join her. More power to her, but it is not at all clear to me that she was brutally or otherwise being exploited in any of this. Good post again. And the Indian Consul-general is arrested, handcuffed in public, stripped and cavity searched. ---
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/230 "2013-12-19T05:25:55Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It could be a face saving gesture so the State Dept can say she has immunity. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is involved now. I don’t know how much pressure is being applied. I’d imagine the politicians are already in CYA and making phone calls. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few days. I agree. I think they will give her immunity. Of course she should have been paying minimum wage and shouldn’t have lied on her visa. But come on - some people here are living in blissful ignorance. There are probably hundreds of thousands of Americans right now in other countries for “pleasure” that are damn well working there in violation of that countries visa laws. That doesn’t excuse the minimum wage thing, but we have actual spies working illegally in other countries. Sometimes with diplomatic cover - most often without. When one country bitches and moans and makes a request of another - it would behoove us to play along. We are going to need a favor some day. If that means someone gets away with a crime - so what. Give India what they want. Make sure there is some behind the scene agreement to treat the workers right under US law - and move on. Indians in general are pretty friendly towards Americans. Hell I felt I was treated better as an American in India that actual Indians. We need friends like that. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/231 "2013-12-19T05:37:58Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > So because all her food was provided for, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to eat, and because she’s provided accommodation where she worked, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to travel or live, she becomes an indentured labourer? She becomes an indentured laborer because she can’t afford to go anywhere except work or buy anything for herself. See how that works? > [@](#): > > And on top of that she’s still making much more money than she would at home, which she can in effect save all of, and use, as a news report suggests she wanted to when her husband approached the consul officer for the job, for her children’s education. What wage do you think she expected at that time? I’m guessing it wasn’t the lower-than-legally-permitted one. > [@](#): > > Instead, a few months into the job that she solicited, she’s gone missing (at this stage why not just go home if she was unhappy with her working conditions?) Why not go home? Because the Indian government wanted her arrested for complaining about the way their diplomat was treating her. > [@truthSeeker2](#): > > And the Indian Consul-general is arrested, handcuffed in public, stripped and cavity searched. The prosecution says she was not handcuffed in public, and was treated pretty respectfully (instead of taking her phone, they let her make calls to her bosses and arrange child care). ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/232 "2013-12-19T05:47:23Z")
@marley23 > [@](#): > > In her email, Khobragade implored the government to ensure her and her children’s safety and preserve the dignity of the IFS, which was “unquestionably under siege”. She said she broke down several times but tried to maintain her dignity and composure as she was representing her country. > > “While I was going through it, although I must admit that I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a holdup with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity, I got the strength to regain composure and remain dignified thinking that I must represent all of my colleagues and my country with confidence and pride,” Read more here > **[Handcuffed and strip-searched, I broke down several times: Devyani Khobragade...](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Handcuffed-and-strip-searched-I-broke-down-several-times-Devyani-Khobragade/articleshow/27558481.cms)** > > India News: In an email to her IFS colleagues, Devyani Khobragade said she broke down but tried to maintain her dignity and composure as she was representing her ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/233 "2013-12-19T06:04:01Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > @marley23 She says she was “repeatedly handcuffed.” You said she was “handcuffed in public.” She doesn’t say she was handcuffed in public, and the prosecutor says she was not handcuffed in public. Does anyone think it’s a little harder to accept the morality of this arrangement if Khobagrade, as alleged, did this? > [@](#): > > Ms. Khobragade, as the Complaint charges, created a second contract that was not to be revealed to the U.S. government, that changed the amount to be paid to far below minimum wage, deleted the required language protecting the victim from other forms of exploitation and abuse, and also deleted language that stated that Ms. Khobragade agreed to “abide by all Federal, state, and local laws in the U.S.” That sounds a little bit less like a cultural difference or a misinterpretation of an agreement where, hey, at least she got room and board! If Richards was benefiting from this agreement, why take out legal language that protected her? ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/234 "2013-12-19T06:18:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > She says she was “repeatedly handcuffed.” You said she was “handcuffed in public.” She doesn’t say she was handcuffed in public, and the prosecutor says she was not handcuffed in public. > [@](#): > > India has objected to the manner of her arrest – she was reportedly handcuffed in public outside her daughters’ school, subjected to strip and cavity searches, and detained along with sex workers and drug addicts > **[World focus on India: Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's arrest in New York...](https://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-world-focus-on-india-indian-diplomat-devyani-khobragade-s-arrest-in-new-york-and-what-followed-1937266)** > > A round up of the international media's coverage of the Devyani Khobragade case and India-US diplomatic row ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/235 "2013-12-19T06:23:57Z")
And the prosecutor says she wasn’t. Given the choice, I’ll take the word of the prosecutor over “reported,” since at least that’s a solid source and the Indian papers cited here are strongly predisposed toward rumor and innuendo and I am not sure they even reflect the statements the prosecution has made. By the way, if people are offended that Khobragade was not treated like the special person she is, I think it’s worth pointing out that compared to any random black or Latino teenager or person of color shopping at a pricey department store, she was treated like royalty! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/236 "2013-12-19T06:43:00Z")
[Apparently](http://www.indianexpress.com/news/yashwant-punish-us-diplomats-with-samesex-companions/1208989/) the right wing BJP party is getting into it, with demands that Indian laws against homosexuality be applied to American embassy staff. > [@Marley23](#): > > By the way, if people are offended that Khobragade was not treated like the special person she is, I think it’s worth pointing out that compared to any random black or Latino teenager or person of color shopping at a pricey department store, she was treated like royalty! That would just make America look _worse._ ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/237 "2013-12-19T06:45:34Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > Thats basically a bunch of stupid Indians fighting among themselves since pakistani are same looking people who speak same language and have almost same culture and who used to be part of Indian till 1947. > Too few for a country of 1.2 billion. > > they suck at that too. Just tht they are relatively better in cricket than they are in other sports. > I see you havent listed indian songs/movies. Check out [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=705255) thread if you care.🙂 > Absolutely not. Thats just a response that is warranted to most of the posts in this thread. I am all for giving AMericans the time that they need to understand the issue. You’re coming dangerously close to breaking our main rule here (which is “Don’t be a jerk”)…so dial back the tone and style of post you’re making here (which seems to be insulting entire countries for the heck of it). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/238 "2013-12-19T07:49:47Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > So because all her food was provided for, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to eat, and because she’s provided accommodation where she worked, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to travel or live, she becomes an indentured labourer? There is more to life than just surviving. She has the same right as you and me to go to a movie, get her hair done, sit in a coffee shop, take a bus down to the Jersey shore on the weekend, and buy a computer to post on the SDMB. I wouldn’t settle for less than that, so why should she? Because she’s “just a servant”, and should know her place? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/239 "2013-12-19T08:50:41Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > The consular officer could never have afforded American minimum wages. Why not? Because the woman in question couldn’t afford it? Do you know what America women who can’t afford live-in domestic help do? They make do without it. > [@](#): > > The only reason the maid could earn this much money was because the consular officer was making sure she got a visa and came with her to the US. Is that not germane in this discussion for anyone? Why not? While I understand what you’re saying about the maid being better off in the US even at what, for the US, are criminally low wages that’s not going to hold up under the US legal system. > [@bldysabba](#): > > Does the government of the US regard those marriages as legal? I would presume that what US states think has no bearing on international transactions. Yes the US Federal government now views those marriages as legal due to a recent Supreme Court case, _United States vs. Windsor_. I’m not sure, exactly, what you mean by “international transactions” in this context, but if you’re dealing with marriage in the US you’re dealing with state laws, not Federal. > [@bldysabba](#): > > So because all her food was provided for, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to eat, and because she’s provided accommodation where she worked, so she doesn’t have to incur costs to travel or live, she becomes an indentured labourer? It comes down to choice - if she is paid so little she is _unable_ to eat out, travel, purchase clothing, etc. then effectively she has no choice at all. Prisoners are provided food, accommodation, clothing, etc, too. Prisoners can even hold jobs, which often pay less than minimum wage, justified much the way you justified the low wages for this maid, because they have food, clothing, and shelter provided. Which is not to say that she was a prisoner, but you’re justifying this because she was given what prisoners are granted. Bravo. I have to wonder if her employer also took away her passport, which seems common enough in exploitation situations. If so, I’d say yes, there was definitely something amiss because an employer never has a reason to hold an employee’s ID. Request to see it at hiring, yes, or make a copy for records, but never take it away from an employee. That would be a clear sign of attempted control and coercion. > [@](#): > > Instead, a few months into the job that she solicited, she’s gone missing (at this stage why not just go home if she was unhappy with her working conditions?) found herself a lawyer who wants her released from the conditions of her visa, come up with a damages claim and found a visa statute which provides for her family to come join her. More power to her, but it is not at all clear to me that she was brutally or otherwise being exploited in any of this. Why does exploitation have to be “brutal” to count? Seems to me the maid discovered she was being paid less than the legal minimum and also discovered she had legal recourse. Earlier this year I had an employer who failed to pay me my wages. I took her to court in November and was awarded _seven times the amount of the wages_ by the judge. Failure to pay legally owed wages is seen as damaging, yes, the courts do award damages in such cases. In the state where I live damages in such cases start at three times the amount of wages owed and (obviously) can go up from there. New York law probably differs in the details but is no doubt similar. And, as far as I’m concerned, I see nothing wrong with the maid looking into changing her visa if that’s what she desires and if she stays within the law to do so. It doesn’t sound to me like the maid “went missing”, it sounds like she voluntarily left her employer, which people are allowed to do in the US. Even if she signed a contract agreeing to the low wages such wages are not legal in the US and thus the contract would not be enforceable. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591/240 "2013-12-19T11:56:25Z")
**Broomstick** and others are being incredibly naive, I am afraid. Even with the best of intentions. 1. Yes, the laws and more importantly the application thereof are different for the lady in question than they are for us. She is a person who is acting in a diplomatic position. Its not ideal, and is open to abuse, but that is the way it is. 2. At the end of the day, the bigger picture needs to be seen. Do you want, India to retaliate (more than they have already) against US diplomats? Start prosecuting US diplomats for infractions that they have up till now ignored? We have had one same sex spouse of a US diplomat in India post here already. International relations would suffer immeasurably if diplomats were able to be targeted by countries, and cases like this this is just the price you pay for this. 3. A point I think that has not been considered. It is most likely that the “Diplomat” never had any idea of how much she was paying the woman in question. I doubt that the paperwork was even made or filed by her and very very likely that the woman’s pay was paid by the Indian mission rather than the woman herself. I do know that the UK Foreign office used to give their diplomats and allowance for valets and such and since this is a woman brought over from India rather than a local, I suspect that this is infact the case here. 4. Which would mean that this is a tussle over diplomatic privileges and the lady is just a pawn. I do know that diplomats in London for instance have often refused to pay the congestion charge under orders…even though individually they might have been willing to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-authorities-strip-search-indian-diplomat-female/676591.md?page=13)