Dubai, May 16: An Indian housemaid in Bahrain, who has allegedly been mistreated by her Bahraini sponsor for five months now, has managed to send a letter to the Bahrain Keraliya Samajam (BKS) appealing to be rescued.

According to a report in the Gulf Daily News newspaper, the housemaid, who refused to divulge her identity, has alleged that she has been denied any access to the outside world and begged to be sent back to India.

"I am not given a single decent meal even once a day or proper clothing and I have to use the clothes that I pick from the garbage bins in the locality," the report quoted her as saying in the letter, which she managed send across to the BKS with the help of a neighbour's housemaid.

She also alleged that she has been refused use of the air-conditioner in these scorching summer days and has been spending the nights pouring cold water on her head and applying water-soaked towels on her body.

According to the report, she had earlier sent an audio tape to her family in Kerala, India, describing the hardships she had been facing since her arrival in Bahrain in December last year. Following the receipt of this tape, her family had sent as many as five letters to her Bahraini employer but got no response. Instead, her employer stopped her from using the telephone, the report quoted BKS general secretary Madhu Madhavan as saying.

"The woman is not even aware of the kind of visa she is residing under here or the locality in which she stays," Madhavan said.

The BKS has now forwarded the letter to the Indian embassy in Bahrain, which has sought details of the housemaid's passport and visa from the manpower recruitment agency, which got her the job.

This is the latest in a series of incidents involving Indian workers and domestic help in the Gulf who have been subjected to mistreatment by their local employers.

India's Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, who visited Bahrain only this month in the course of a three-nation tour of the Gulf, had taken up the issue of Indian workers in that Gulf nation with Bahrain's Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and Labour Minister Dr Majeed Al Alawi.

Ravi had also expressed India's keenness to work with Bahraini authorities to crack down on fraudulent recruiting agents who exploit workers.

There are over 130,000 Indians in Bahrain, many of whom work as labourers and domestic help.