RIYADH, 22 March 2008 — Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse ordered the Foreign Employment Ministry to take effective steps in ending the recruitment and employment of Sri Lankan women as housemaids abroad before the end of this year.
Lankan woman currently working overseas would not be affected.
More than one million housemaids are currently deployed in the countries in the Middle East and a third of them are concentrated in the Kingdom.
A spokesman from the government, said the president gave this directive when he met the secretaries of the various government departments recently at the Temple Trees, the leader’s official residence recently.
At the meeting, the president said that the time had come for Lankan women to choose vocations that needed professional skills that yield higher salaries.
