Colombo provides home to distressed Saudi expat

The Sri Lankan government has decided to help a distressed Sri Lankan worker by providing him a Rs500,000 house in his home country.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ruwan Chamara Herath lost his leg in an accident while driving his sponsor's vehicle in the Kingdom.
“Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister Dilan Perera agreed to provide Herath with a house back home,” Kifaya Ifthikar, a Riyadh-based social worker who was tending to Herath’s case, told Arab News on Saturday.
Ifthikar, who met Perera during her recent visit to the island, said the minister was very sympathetic toward his plight.
Herath left the Kingdom with a cash compensation of SR25,000 upon intervention by the Sri Lankan Consulate, as the sponsor, according to Herath, wanted to forcibly repatriate him against his will without giving him proper compensation. “The SR5,000 that the sponsor had promised me is worth my 3 months’ wages and allowances,” he said.
A senior official from the Sri Lankan Consulate in Jeddah said the mission raised the compensation sum to SR25,000 with the sponsor.
“We are happy that we worked out a reasonable compensation upon mutual agreement between the sponsor and the employee,” he said.