Unpaid maid gets Rs. 1.7m from Riyadh Governor

Mohammed RASOOLDEEN in Saudi Arabia

In a gesture of goodwill, Riyadh Governor Prince Salman Ibn Abdul Aziz donated Rs.1.7 million to a Sri Lankan maid, who was not paid her salary for the past 13 years by her sponsor in Araar, who recently died.

Girlie Malika Fernando, 53, ran away in July last year and sought shelter at the Sri Lankan embassy in Riyadh, complaining that she had not been paid her salaries for 13 years. Subsequently, she was transferred to the Kingdom’s Welfare Centre for stranded housemaids to be helped to return to Sri Lanka.

“We are thankful to the Governor, who responded immediately to help the maid who was suffering from mental depression due to difficulties faced at work since she arrived in the Kingdom,” K.B.G. Premadasa, Labour Secretary of the Sri Lankan Embassy, told the Daily News yesterday. He added that the maid has three children in Wadduwa.

Fernando left the Kingdom for Sri Lanka on Wednesday after spending more than a year at the welfare centre. The centre’s manager, Capt. Abdullah Al-Gaad, had made several unsuccessful efforts to negotiate with her sponsor’s family to recover the arrears of her salary.

“No one took the responsibility of the maid following the death of her sponsor,” Premadasa said.

He pointed out that the money offered by Prince Salman would help the maid and her family.

Premadasa explained that the mission in Riyadh gets an average of eight to 10 runaway maids a day. “On admission, the embassy registers stranded maids and keep them in its safe house pending an amicable settlement with sponsors, failing which they are sent to the government welfare camp to be helped return home,” he said.

At present, he said, there are around 150 stranded maids in the embassy’s safe house and some 250 Lankan maids at the Government welfare center in Riyadh. Non-payment of salaries and harassment are the two major problems that for housemaids to runaway and come to the embassy.

“Sexual harassment is increasing in the recent past and some sponsors have confessed that they have resorted to misdemeanors when their wives are not at home,” Premadasa said, adding that the mission does not know how to overcome such situations.

Premadasa also stressed that complaints from distressed maids are minimal compared to the Lankan housemaid population in the Kingdom, which is estimated to be around 400,000. Another major flaw in the recruitment procedure of Lankan housemaids is the issuance of block visas, the labour secretary said.

“Maids, in groups of 100, are dumped at Riyadh airport from Colombo and the local agent here distributes them to various sponsors, according to their whims and fancies. The embassy does not have a mechanism to monitor, which maid is going to which house,” he said.

He pointed out that the women cleaners, who work at the Kingdom’s various hospitals undergo numerous hardships such as delayed payment of salaries, absence of proper medical facilities and prolonged delay in repatriating maids back home on completion of work contracts.