RIYADH, 20 August 2003 — A group of 27 maids will be repatriated to Sri Lanka later this week and early next week, while 80 other Sri Lankan female workers are awaiting their return to Colombo while their exit visas are being processed. The maids, including a group stranded at an embassy-run facility in Riyadh set up to house runaway maids, have formally lodged complaints of maltreatment against their Saudi employers.
Sri Lankan Ambassador Ibrahim Sahib Ansar said here yesterday the Sri Lankan mission in cooperation with various Saudi and Sri Lankan government agencies repatriated 1,037 maids from January to July this year alone, indicating the magnitude of the problem. “We have been repatriating some 125 maids to Colombo a month,” he said.
The Sri Lankan Embassy has been receiving six or seven complaints daily from maids, he added.
“A Saudi employer was recently arrested and was put behind the bars for several days on charges of sexually assaulting a Sri Lankan maid,” Ansar said. He praised the promptness of Saudi officials in nabbing and detaining this particular employer after the maid accused him of rape and indecent behavior. But the ambassador was quick to add that he was aware of only a small number of sexual harassment and assault in this country. Most of the complaints of maids are related to non-payment of wages, maltreatment, verbal abuse or long working hours with no provision for off-days.
The diplomat refused to provide details of the rape case, saying that the Sri Lankan victim, who filed charges with Saudi police, had already left for Colombo. On the court’s directive, the Saudi employer underwent a medical examination, and no details of a settlement were made available.
More than 350,000 Sri Lankans work in Saudi Arabia and nearly 80 percent of them are domestic workers, mainly maids.
Asked about the solution to the problem of maids who run away from their employers, Ambassador Ansar said: “We have started blacklisting recruiting agents who have been deploying Sri Lankan maids in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, we are also preparing a blacklist of Saudi employers with a history of harassing female workers.” Blacklisted employers will not be allowed to recruit female workers from the island state.
He said the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) had decided to issue a computerized card to every female worker containing relevant information including contact details of sponsors and recruiting agents. This will help trace the employer and the recruiting agent if a complaint is formally lodged, he said.
The ambassador admitted that some maids make up charges. “Some have been fabricating stories and complaints to run away from their sponsors either because of homesickness or because they simply don’t want to work,” he said, but such cases are rare.
“There have been many cases when the Saudi employers have been very helpful and have provided compensation while seeking out-of-court settlement,” said Mohamed Jiffry Meeran, the labor attache at the Sri Lankan Embassy.
