Manpower agency pays compensation for maid’s death

Diamond necklace, cash part of compensation

Mohammed RASOOLDEEN

RIYADH: A diamond necklace worth SR 4,000 and SR 3,500 in cash is part of the compensation that will be given to a Sri Lankan woman whose daughter starved to death in October 2005 while working as a maid in the Kingdom.

Al-Nashwan Recruiting Company in Riyadh handed over the compensation to W.S.M.S. Wijesundera, charge d’affaires at the Sri Lankan Embassy, yesterday.

The money and jewellery reportedly will be sent to the maid’s mother, Ratnaseeli, to help the maid’s impoverished family in Gonapola.

Vasanthi came to the Kingdom in October 2000 and died five years later from complications attributed to malnutrition, according to an autopsy.

It was discovered that the maid had not received her salary for the period of her work and compensation for the unpaid labour alone would amount to SR 24,000.

The maid’s sponsor, whose name was not provided was arrested along with his wife shortly after the cause of death was discovered and after the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry complained to Saudi authorities.

The husband was later released in an attempt to obtain compensation from him.

“Later the police released the woman too since she was proved insolvent,” Wijesundera said.

The maid’s body lingered in Saudi Arabia for more than a year because nobody would pay the cost of having it repatriated to Sri Lanka.

“Finally, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) paid SR 7,000 to send her body home,” the diplomat said.

The 28-year-old woman had come to the Kingdom to help pay for her brother’s heart surgery.

“She was not given her salary for five years and she was not even fed properly,” Wijesundera said.

The diplomat said that non payment of salaries is a common complaint and the mission does not know the volume of cases in the Kingdom.

“We only take action against the reported cases,” he said, adding that the embassy intends to soon establish new regulations to monitor the sponsors of Sri Lankan workers to ensure that they are paid on time.

“We will also consider the financial status of the local sponsor when we attest visas for domestic workers,” he said.