Nail torture incidents:

Resolutions lag behind

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau dealing with a series of nail torture incidents inflicted on Sri Lankan migrant housemaids in the Middle East, has been unable to present their cases to respective governments since the first such case reported to it by the Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia in late August.

As pointed out by Bureau's General Manager H.Batagoda this is due to lack of medical evidence. Meanwhile, the Bureau said it awaits medical reports to present its latest case of nail torture on housemaid Lechchami(38) whom the doctors found 14 nails to have been embedded in her body by her employer in Kuwait. In both cases, the employers hammered nail into their bodies when they demanded their wages.

The Bureau says they have to establish these cases with medical evidence which is lacking at the time to proceed with further action. Batagoda said they have been unable to present the case of Ariyawathi who was the first victim to have been tortured with insertion of 24 wire nails in her arms and legs by her employer in August because they have been unable to get a report on her medical status from the Judicial Medical Officer concerned.

This is despite repeated requests made by the Bureau from the JMO, he said. Asked if the doctors who removed her nails at the Kamburupitiya Hospital in Matara did not provide any such evidence involving her condition, the General Manager said they have sent the report to the JMO at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital. The JMO has not sent his medical report in this regard to us since August, he said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka is said to have asked the JMO last Monday to send his medical report on Ariyawathie's case.

Asked Batagoda if the Bureau had got any compensation to be paid to the victim from her Saudi Arabian employer or Saudi Government, he said they have got none but the victim was well looked after by the Government and the Bureau. He said President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave a house and money to the victim.

The Bureau also gave her a house and money to compensate her suffering. Batagoda also said cases like this can have adverse results in terms of foreign employment opportunities the country gets from these countries.

The cases had to be dealt with utmost care and precision as they do not reflect the nature of all employers in these countries.

He stressed the need to deal with them as individual cases without inflicting pressure on bilateral ties between Sri Lanka and these countries.