Life Abroad – Part 11:
‘Servants’, and scam-land scum
The 'cutting of the neck' of Rizana Nafeek in Saudi Arabia last week,
to put it in a crude manner than using a refined word like ‘be-heading’,
the facts behind the whole unfortunate episode is now widely known not
only in Sri Lanka but in every corner of the world.
This took me back to 1991, when I bared a ‘house-maid scam in London'
through columns of the Sunday Times, which exposed the wolves in sheep
skin who were engaged in human smuggling rackets just to earn a few
chips at the cost of human life !
Innocently marooned
Mallika, in her mid forties, appeared on an upmarket London street
with her daughter Sepali donning a ‘home-made’ frock. She appeared
unsophisticated. Her daughter in her mid-twenties walked abreast wearing
similar attire.
By a stroke of luck, they came across a Sri Lankan good Samaritan, a
chance in a million, who approached them having realised they were in a
distressed situation and devoted his time to listen to their most
astonishing and equally sad story of becoming victims of a wave of
Kuwati employment racketeers operating from London.
Immediately after the anexation of Kuwait by Saddham Hussein, the
so-called Kuwati ‘employer’ based in London had travelled to Colombo,
recruited four women (including Mallika and Sepali) and brought them on
a single direct flight to London for employment. Although he pretended
to be the employer, he was exposed as ‘an employment Agent’
subsequently!
In London, the four women were placed by the Kuwati with separate
Kuwati families living in London with the promise of good wages and many
other perks, yet amidst other mistreatment,they were never given a day
off, or ever allowed to go out of the premises, which was strictly
against British regulations.
Mallika and her daughter soon became dismayed with enduring agony
within weeks of their placement and the freedom they anticipated in a
hyper democratic law abiding society had flown through the window! For
Mallika and Sepali it became inconceivable. Their knowledge of Arabic
was limited, neither could they converse in English, not even to get by
or ask for directions from anyone to approach the nearest police station
or the Sri Lanka High Commission in London.
Rescue operation
For the mother and daughter the sudden meeting of a kind ‘Sinhala
Mahattaya’ on a London street appeared like a ‘god-sent’, who, after
listening to the disheartening story escorted the duo to the Sri Lanka
High Commission in London.
Needless to say even the High Commission officials were taken by
surprise to hear their depressing story, and more so, how they managed
to escape from their employer while the mistress was enjoying an
afternoon siesta. The fate of the other two women brought to London by
the fake Kuwati agent from Sri Lanka was not known to Mallika or Sepali.
Officials of the Sri Lanka High Commission listened to the women’s
harsh experiences and realised the intensity of the problem and the
plight they were in. The tricky situation placed the London Mission in a
quandary because on the one hand, the High Office had in their custody
two Sri Lankan citizens who were stranded in London, which obviously
became a liability and on the other hand, Colombo had not allocated any
provision or financial allocation to deal with such unexpected
situations before.
In the absence of any reserved extra funds to send the two women home
by ‘the next available flight’ they produced the two women at a
face-to-face interview with the Kuwati Agent in an attempt to resolve
the confused and thorny situation, in the hope of reaching an amicable
agreement.
During the interview the High Commission staff laid down some
specific conditions to the Kuwati national thus:
(a) To negotiate with the women’s employer and come to a written
agreement for fair treatment under the Britain’s Office and Factory Act.
(b) To ensure that the two domestic workers were allowed at least a
day off (a week) and a reasonable wage.
(c) The two Sri Lankan passports be brought from the employer and
kept at the London Mission for security.
(d) Kuwati Agent to turn up with the two women once a month at the
Sri Lanka High Commission to ensure they were being looked after well.
Naturally, the Kuwati national did not agree to such conditions and
the maids were adamant too about not getting back to the same household
again; instead their plea became only to get back home.
The London Mission was now placed in an awkward situation when the
Kuwati vehemently disagreed to bow down to Sri Lankan conditions and the
two women on the other hand refusing to work anywhere in London but to
return to Sri Lanka.
In a desperate move, having failed to recover a penny from the Kuwati
Agent, and in the absence of any reserved allocated funds for social
obligations of this nature officially, the High Commission was left with
only one alternative, to make a desperate appeal to the IOM
(Intrnational Organisation of Migration) office in London, a voluntary
organisation aimed to help migrants especially during the Gulf War
crisis.
On a bright April morning (1991) Mallika and Sepali were seated
inside an AirLanka Tri Star plane on a journey home bound. But what
caught their eye in mid-air made their hair stand on end! They could not
believe their eyes when they saw the same Kuwati Agent, who pushed them
into such a calamity, once again inside the same plane travelling to
Colombo!
Presence of mind
The moment the plane touched down at Katunayake Internatinal Airport,
Mallika and Sepali made a quick dash up to the Airport Security and
related their entire experience which made the immigration authorities
question the passenger and later release him after obtaining a
statement.
In the meanwhile, the Sri Lanka High Commission in London did a
thorough follow up operation and dispatched a detailed dossier to
Colombo. However, the Kuwati agent being a shrewd and a cunning fox had
already lined up another batch of women in Colombo to replace the one’s
he already lost in London. Despite such trickery, he had approached the
Foreign Employment Bureau in Colombo quite confidently quoting one of
the London Diplomatic Officer’s names as a referee hoping for a
favourable decision and approval from the the Colombo authorities.
The Foreign Employment Bureau, in their routine double checking
programme, intelligently contacted the London Officer whose name was
given as reference by the Agent. While high links were being played by
the foreigner, telex messages soon began to fly up and down blowing the
cover of the Kuwati’s nefarious activities. At the time this incident
(1991) was filed by me from London, the Kuwati national had been
subjected to painstaking interrogation by the Sri Lankan authorities
with the co-operation and assistance from the London High Commission
Officials.
Subsequently, it was revealed that in both Mallika and Sepali’s
passports an official entry permit had been rubber stamped at the
British High Commission in Colombo as 'Visitor' with an endorsement by
the London Immigration officials at the airport stating that they should
not have been engaged in any profession, business or employment for
payment or reward in the UK. Yet it remained a mystery as to how the
Kuwati agent in London managed to visit Sri Lanka quite confidently and
regularly and managed to take Sri Lankan women out of the country on
‘visitors’ entry permits on single trips!
Shocking
The deplorable factor is that even after such incidents taking place
two decades ago, still there appears to be some unscrupulous elements
who manage to sieve through slack areas of the law and manage to get
away with ‘murder'.
Rizana’s recent death is a case in point. The general consensus today
in Sri Lanka appears to be that even at this late hour the authorities
should be able to bring the employment agency, that was responsible for
forging documents and sending this under-aged young girl abroad to work
and face a barbaric end to her innocent life to book!
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