Helping expatriates in need

Take for example the case of Lankan housemaid Anista Marie, who three years ago made a desperate call to Arab News, begging the paper to intervene. Marie was virtually imprisoned in a villa in Riyadh. She had come to work 10 years earlier but not paid for eight of those years. She was also prevented from traveling home.
On hearing the information, Arab News promptly reacted by highlighting Marie’s story. The newspaper stayed on the case, leaning on the Lankan Embassy and local police to find the woman and rescue her from bondage.
Police eventually found her in a villa in Aziziyah. Saudi security authorities, in cooperation with Sri Lankan Embassy officials in Riyadh, rescued Marie, who had been working within the four walls of a Saudi home.
“I am happy that I am a free woman now and thankful to Arab News which initiated the move that culminated in my release from my sponsor,” Marie said before her final departure to Colombo.
“I do not want anything more now but to fly home to see my children who have been suffering like orphans without their mother,” Marie added.
The Saudi woman who had imprisoned Marie was neither identified nor charged with a crime, but at least Marie was freed.
Reacting to another story published by Arab news, a Colombo-based social service organization came forward to ferry home a housemaid who has been in coma for three months in a hospital in the Eastern Province.
Saroja Devi, 32, from the town of Wilanagama, Alawatugoda, 150 km from Colombo, was admitted to the private Al-Musa Hospital by her employer on July 2, 2008, but was later transferred to Prince Saud bin Jalawi Hospital in view of the high cost of treatment. According to the medical report, the maid had suffered brain damage due to smoke inhalation from a fire and subsequently went into a coma.
Sympathizing with the plight of the maid, the Colombo-based Society For Love and Understanding (SFLU) sent SR18,000 to bring the patient back home.
Following another Arab News report, a Pakistani expatriate in the capital helped rescue a newborn who was virtually held for ransom by a hospital because the parents could not afford to pay the bill. The good Samaritan, who did not want to be identified for his charity, paid the SR16,000 bill to secure the release of the baby.
In response to reports in Arab News, many readers have come forward to help stranded expat workers providing them with air tickets. Many bore the costs of transportation of dead bodies and helped expat workers injured in road and industrial accidents.
Besides these incidents, the newspaper has been highlighting numerous problems of expatriates who were tortured, robbed or cheated.
It has acted as an advocate in society and has remained a source of information for government and nongovernmental organizations in the Kingdom. Reports in Arab News have encouraged government authorities to take appropriate action on matters that affected the people living in all parts of the Kingdom.
While looking back at the unique achievements of Arab News during the past 35 years in resolving such social problems, the newspaper hopes to redouble its efforts to serve the people by publishing articles and news stories that would help the society continue its march forward.