RIYADH, 7 May 2007 — About 100 Sri Lankan women, who have completed their three-year contracts as hospital cleaners, are not being allowed to return home as their company insists they remain in the Kingdom working until replacements for their jobs are found.
“We came from Sri Lanka on a three-year contract and were employed at hospitals all over the Kingdom,” said a Sri Lankan janitor from Al-Dawadmi. She added that all the women are eager to return after a long period away from their families and friends, and that their company has insisted they remain until replacements are found.
“Six months have passed since the contract ended and we are still eagerly waiting to see our loved ones back home. After the contract period, the day passes like a month,” she said, adding that there are 15 such workers in Al-Dawadmi alone.
Meanwhile, in Riyadh there are some 29 women workers locked up in a room at an unknown location. Giving details of the group, Lalitha Gunasekera, a Sri Lankan worker, told Arab News over the telephone that 19 workers had come from a hospital in Madinah and the others had arrived there from Hafr Al-Batin and Saqra hoping to go home.
Gunasekera said that she was one of those who came five years ago and had opted to prolong her contract period due to financial difficulties experienced by her family back home.
“Others who have completed their contracts wanted to go home but the company is not processing their final-exit documents since it doesn’t have the necessary funds to pay their end-of-service dues,” she added.
The women received salaries of around SR400 per month, which included food and other expenses.
Confirming the complaint, a Sri Lankan Embassy official told Arab News that the mission had taken note of the situation and was arranging a meeting with the employer to assist the distressed workers. “Detaining a worker, who has completed the work period, against his or her will is contrary to local regulations,” said the official, who is also a lawyer.
He added that the embassy would listen to both sides of the story before reaching a conclusion.
The official said the embassy has a separate labor welfare department, which looks after the interests of Sri Lankans involved in such disputes, adding that sponsors are normally cooperative.
According to a recent report on migrant workers, more than 60 percent of the 1.5 million Sri Lankans who work abroad are women. Many, employed as housemaids in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, leave behind broken homes and young children who are often neglected or abused, sometimes by a close relative or even fathers. Recently, the Sri Lankan government imposed a ban on young mothers from taking jobs as housemaids, hospital cleaners and factory workers in foreign countries.
