Sri Lankan workers rescued in Iraq

FRANK JORDANS

GENEVA: A group of Sri Lankans hoping to find well-paid jobs in the United Arab Emirates ended up stranded in northern Iraq instead and had to be rescued by an intergovernmental migration group.

The case highlights the growing number of people from poor countries being recruited to work as labourers, drivers and domestic servants in Iraq, an official with the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.

Vincent Houver, IOM's regional coordinator based in Amman,Jordan, told The Associated Press that the 17 men had paid US$2,000 (euro1,500) to a Sri Lankan employment agency and were promised work in the UAE.

But although they were initially flown to the UAE in December, they were then taken by plane to Erbil in the Kurdish-controlled northern part of Iraq. The Sri Lankans, who were from the country's Tamil ethnic minority, were held for weeks in an unfinished house without food or heating before they understood they had not arrived at their promised destination.

"They realized they were in Iraq because the weather wasn't as good as they expected," Houver said.

The men then managed to make contact with a local U.N. office and were referred to IOM, which was able to fly them out of Iraq and back to Sri Lanka where they arrived in the capital Colombo on Monday, Houver said.

It is increasingly learning of cases where migrants are smuggled into the country.

GENEVA (AP)