June 19th, 2011 – 5:05pm
The Washington Examiner
By Emily Babay
Three years after a government report uncovered that abuse of domestic workers by diplomats was more pervasive than expected, officials and advocates say progress is being made in preventing such cases.
A Government Accountability Office study found 42 likely trafficking cases between 2000 and 2008. Since then, programs have been set up to inform diplomats’ domestic workers about human trafficking before they arrive in the United States and better track abuse allegations.
Continue reading »
Read more: courts, enterprise, Washington Examiner, writing
June 17th, 2011 – 5:03pm
The Washington Examiner
By Emily Babay
A maid or nanny alleges that her employer has raped her, taken her passport, made her shovel snow in shorts, refused to pay her or beat her unconscious.
In most cases, this is what would happen next: Police would investigate. If the allegations were true, the employer would face criminal charges and a potential civil lawsuit for emotional and monetary damages.
Unless the employer is a diplomat.
All of those allegations have been made against high-level foreign officials in Washington in recent years. They foreshadowed the sexual assault accusations from a New York hotel maid facing Dominique Strauss-Kahn, now the former chief of the International Monetary Fund. But unlike Strauss-Kahn, D.C.-area diplomats have largely escaped criminal courtrooms and serious consequences.
Continue reading »
Read more: courts, enterprise, Uncategorized, Washington Examiner, writing
June 13th, 2011 – 4:15pm
The Washington Examiner
By Emily Babay
When Carl Diener was fatally beaten and stabbed on a Clarendon street in 2009, Patti Diener didn’t understand how her tall, strong older brother — a retired government worker who was working at a gym — couldn’t fight off an assailant.
On Monday, she learned part of the reason: Police believe he had two attackers.
Continue reading »
Read more: crime, Washington Examiner, writing