Over 90 stranded SL maids set to return home
A total of 98 stranded Sri Lankan housemaids will be repatriated this
week on an initiative made by the country's consulate in Jeddah.
Consul General Adambawa Uthumalebbe said that consulate officials
handed over a large group of domestic workers and six children to the
Deportation Centre (Tarheel) in Jeddah.
He said that the repatriation of the runaway maids has to be
streamlined through the Deportation Centre, after the mission processed
the travel documents, including the emergency certificates.
The consul general said the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE)
provided air tickets to 42 stranded housemaids.
The others paid for their tickets to Colombo. Consulate's Labour
Section head M M Jiffry said two of the six children were infants and
the others aged between three and five years. Jiffry said a mission
survey showed that most of the runaway maids had left their workplaces
within three months after arriving in Jeddah.
The common complaints of these runaway maids included harassment and
non payment of wages, he said.
However, he pointed out that some of the maids ran away looking for
better salaries elsewhere.
The average contracted salary for housemaids is SR 650 per month.
Saudi employers who hire the runaway maids locally pay them up to SR
1,500 a month.
A Saudi sponsor has to spend at least SR 10,000 to hire a maid from
abroad, which includes visa fees, air fare and agency fees.
On an average, the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh receives 10 runaway
maids daily, while two such maids report to the consulate in Jeddah each
day.
According to reports, some of the cases are settled at the missions
through negotiations with their sponsors while others are repatriated.
The official said the mission would work out a scheme to encourage
the maidservants to continue their work with the contracted Saudi
sponsors till the stipulated period is over. Despite the overseas maids’
bulk foreign remittances to the national coffers of Sri Lanka, its
government has plans to replace the country's overseas workers with
semi-skilled and skilled workers and with professionals from Sri Lanka.
The government plans to set the maximum age limit for these maids at
43 years. The existing age limit for housemaid is currently set between
21 to 50 years.
The new rule would indirectly discourage women from going abroad to
do household chores, sources from Colombo said.
Courtesy: Arab News |