A1A South

RIYADH, 3 March 2008 — A Sri Lankan maid, who was tortured brutally by her employer’s wife, has been forcibly sent home without being paid a year’s salary.

“I was tortured severely. The sponsor’s wife burned me with an iron rod, poured disinfectant and gasoline on me and threatened to burn me alive; she also said she would cut my hair to make me ugly,” said Madhuwanthie, the 28-year-old Sri Lankan woman.

Madhuwanthie has — through the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) — sought the intervention of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh to contact her sponsor and get her salary dues.

Madhuwanthie, who worked for the household for 21 months, has only received pay for the first nine months of her employment. “Every time I asked for my salary, they would beat me and threaten to hand me over to the police on false charges,” she said in a letter to SLBFE. “I did not have the opportunity to contact the embassy since the telephone was out of my reach.”

According to a Sri Lankan Embassy official, the mission needs to come up with a system whereby it is informed when a domestic worker is sent on final exit.

“This is a clear case of sponsor deserting worker. The sponsor sent the maid home stealthily without anyone’s knowledge fearing he would be questioned for torture and nonpayment of salaries,” said the official.

He added that it would be better if the mission could tackle problems in the presence of both the employer and the employee. Third party inquiries are ineffective since both sides cannot be heard together and a firm commitment from the sponsor cannot be obtained. However, he said the mission would take up the matter with the relevant authorities.

The Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh receives an average of nine cases of runaway maids each day. The mission has opened a 24-hour cell to accommodate such cases and report them to the proper authorities. The country’s missions in Jeddah and Riyadh also run safe houses for such workers till problems are resolved. Common complaints by the maids include nonpayment of salaries, harassment and being forced to continue work beyond contract periods.

Source: Arab News

If nonpayment of salaries and abuse of employees are common problems, I feel so sorry for the people that are in such straitened circumstances that they have to go anyway.