Wednesday, January 25, 2006

"Ministry of Labor and Foreign Employment do not possess the complete details of the number Sri Lankan women working in the Middle East despite complains of abuse inundates the Ministry. The latest details available with the Ministry were that of the 2003 figures. According to the year 2003 figures available with the Ministry, it has received 2,000 reports of foreign employers abusing maids which is said to be the latest figures available. Furthermore, a total of 123 Sri Lankan women died in 2003 while working abroad of which the Government had classified 45 cases as "Unnatural Deaths." As complaints of abuses on the women workers in the Middle East keep pouring in, Sri Lanka Government has come forward to take urgent measures to all the abuse of tens of thousands of women working abroad, according to Labor Relations and Foreign Employment Minister Athauda Seneviratne."