Plea to help repatriate Lankan maid’s body
December 16, 2010 07:50 am
An urgent appeal has gone out to help repatriate the body of
a Sri Lankan housemaid stranded in
The 66-year-old came to
She never went back to
He is believed to have died years ago and Ms Kalyanawathie
started working elsewhere after her visa expired in 2008.
Her case was highlighted when police called the Sri Lankan
consulate and informed them of her death.
Her body is kept in Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) morgue
and Sri Lankan honorary consul general P B Higgoda is following up the case.
“Her case is very complicated as her sponsor or husband died years ago,” said Mr Higgoda.
“She was doing odd jobs and stayed illegally after her visa expired in 2008.
“I got the details from the police that she got married to a
Bahraini man after she converted to Islam.
“They didn’t provide us more details on when she got
married.
“But they have all details in the system and probably it’s
her sponsor she got married to, but it’s not clear.
“The problem is that she never thought of going back home and later didn’t renew her visa.
“Now we are facing difficulties in repatriating her body.
“It’s already more than a week since she died and we can’t
trace her sponsor or get any records related to her.”
Mr Higgoda said that they had her CPR and passport numbers from the police, but they can’t help with more details.
“Now we have to check if she has any relatives in
“According to my information, she was in
Letter
“We have to send a letter to the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry
and our embassy in
“Otherwise, we need to fulfil the requirements according to Bahraini law and cremate the body here, as we have no other choice.”
Mr Higgoda urged community members to legalise their status
if they wish to live or work in
“We have urged the community several times and we would like
to emphasise that if they break the
“So we want them to follow rules and regulations and
legalise their stay in