Protect Sri Lanka’s workers from slavery in the Middle East

Can I see another’s woe and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another’s grief and not seek for kind relief? ( William Blake’s Sorrow)

The story of 17 year old Rizana Nafeek who went to Saudi Arabia on fabricated papers to hide her actual age to serve as a maid in order to bring happiness to her poor family is known to all Sri Lanka and the world at large. For the past six years

Rizana has been languishing in a jail -awaiting execution by beheading, convicted of suffocating an infant to death while milk feeding due to her ignorance in proper child care. She has been awaiting a pardon by the parents of the child which is not yet forthcoming.

The agony in this poor girl’s heart was depicted recently when she met her parents, pleaded and appealed to them to bring

her back home. The anguish felt by Rizana for six long years as she feels the sharpened sword kept to her neck at any moment, spending sleepless nights in a prison cell having nightmares is enough to make a human being go crazy. The President had personally appealed to the Saudi King for clemency, but according to Sharia Law only the parents of the child can pardon Rizana, who is herself a Muslim. Islam is a great religion and the Sharia Law has to be respected, but as the Holy Koran states that Almighty Allah is merciful, let the Sri Lankans hope and pray that the parents of the deceased child, whose anguish is understandable, finally decide to be merciful to Rizana, the youngster who arrived at their household in the hope of making a better future for her poor family.

The anguish she has already undergone for six long years in prison for her ignorance should be taken into account by any human being. Recently it was shown on television the gruesome manner in which an Indonesian maid was beheaded for killing her mistress, who was allegedly torturing her constantly. Last week it was reported in the media that a body of another Sri Lankan maid arrived from Kuwait in Sri Lanka and the autopsy revealed that her heart, stomach and the liver had been removed. Although it has been said that the internal organs were removed for tests to ascertain the cause of death, the cause of death still remains a mystery, thereby casting a serious doubt on that explanation. Several maids arrived in Sri Lanka with iron nails inserted into their bodies. In the budget speech delivered last week by the President it was stated that the highest foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka is foreign employment of Sri Lankans, whereas in the good old days it was tea, rubber, coconut and other export crops.

It is advisable that the sending of house maids from Sri Lanka to Middle Eastern countries should be terminated forthwith.

If Sri Lankan women wish to go to the Middle East for employment due to their poverty, training institutions should be set up by the Government, which is earning foreign exchange by such employment to train them in nursing or in the hospital attendant’s service depending on the educational qualifications of such women. As such women will then be employed by Government or Private Hospitals in the Middle East, they will have fixed hours of work, reasonable accommodation and food as well as being paid higher salaries than those earned by house maids. During the period of training the Government must pay these women a reasonable living allowance, which may be deducted from their future earnings abroad. The Foreign Employment Bureau may be placed in charge of such training. A large number of Filipino women are employed in the health sector of the Middle East .

The laws governing Foreign Employment Agencies in Sri Lanka have to be amended in order to deliver stringent punishment to offenders who fabricate papers to send under-age girls for such employment. The Agent, who sent Rizana on fabricated papers has not faced any punishment up to date although poor Rizana is living in hell for the past six years due to the greed of the person/persons who engage in a virtual slave trade. In the good old days slave trade was rampant in the Middle East. The slaves captured and brought in mainly from the African countries were treated worse than animals. Many instances have been reported where maids have jumped from high rise buildings resulting in death or grave injuries in attempts to avoid improper sexual advances or rape by their employers or their relatives or friends. It appears judging from the experiences of Sri Lankan maids that the said inhuman mentality concerning slaves still remains in the Middle East as far as the domestic servants are concerned.

It is a shame that Sri Lankan society has to depend on foreign exchange earned by the pathetic slavery of our poor women in the Middle East. Can the Sri Lankan Government boast of increased earnings of foreign exchange generated by such

slavery? Sri Lanka is a beautiful country known as the pearl of the Indian Ocean and can we say that Sri Lankans are a proud nation while turning a blind eye to the suffering and sorrow of our own sisters living in agony in pathetic slavery. There appears to be a large gap in the income levels of the rich and the poor in Sri Lanka, which would finally lead to grave consequences for the law and order situation in our land. While the rich squander their money on night life the poor are getting poorer day by day. As William Blake said and quoted at the beginning of this column, it is our duty to find relief for our people in grief. It is heartening to note that the I.G.P has set up a special unit to visit Police Stations and bring errant Police Officers to book as stated recently in the media as recommended in this column on Police Brutality and Indiscipline published last month. Let us hope that the Government would take the necessary steps to protect our women in foreign employment in the near future.

Let me conclude in lighter vein with a humourous episode. Making her first airplane trip to a Middle Eastern country, a Sri Lankan maid found herself a window seat in a non-smoking area and settled down. A few minutes later, a man came over and insisted that she was in his seat, but she flatly refused to move. In the end he said: “OK, Lady if that is the way you want it, you fly this plane!” (Modified version from ‘The Joke Book’ p.222 edited by Dave Phillips-2005)

The writer is an Attorney-at-Law

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