Outpass-ticket joy for runaway Lankan maid
July 17, 2011 11:05 am
RIYADH: An Indian social service organization based in Riyadh on Saturday offered to help a distressed Sri Lankan maid find her way home.
Sri Lankan maid Nawaz Dawood Sifana, 25, had run away from her Saudi sponsor’s home seven months ago.
After her employer complained, police arrested and detained her in Malaz jail for four months until three months ago, when she was transferred to a deportation camp in Riyadh.
Sifana’s father is a Sri Lankan citizen, while her mother is from the south Indian state of Kerala. According to her passport, she was born in the village of Maduranketiya around 140 km from Colombo.
“We received an outpass from the Sri Lankan Embassy because the maid holds a Sri Lankan passport,” Indian social worker Tennala Mohideen Kutty told Arab News on Saturday. He also pointed out that according to her passport, she had come to the Kingdom when she was just 20.
Kutty said the Kerala Muslim Cultural Center — Kannur District Committee, had come forward to offer an air ticket for the maid to go to Colombo. “We will be able to repatriate her as soon as we find her an airline reservation,” Kutty said, adding that her mother from Kerala had informed him that she would come to receive the maid in the Sri Lankan capital.
An official from the Sri Lankan Embassy said the outpass was issued by the mission and added it was a mystery as to how she passed through Sri Lankan immigration when the minimum age for maids was fixed at 21.
Thanking the Indian organization for helping Sifana, the official said the maid was also entitled to a ticket to Colombo since she is registered with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
Unscrupulous recruitment agents sending underage maids to Saudi Arabia is a common trend, reports Arab News.
Sri Lankan maid Nawaz Dawood Sifana, 25, had run away from her Saudi sponsor’s home seven months ago.
After her employer complained, police arrested and detained her in Malaz jail for four months until three months ago, when she was transferred to a deportation camp in Riyadh.
Sifana’s father is a Sri Lankan citizen, while her mother is from the south Indian state of Kerala. According to her passport, she was born in the village of Maduranketiya around 140 km from Colombo.
“We received an outpass from the Sri Lankan Embassy because the maid holds a Sri Lankan passport,” Indian social worker Tennala Mohideen Kutty told Arab News on Saturday. He also pointed out that according to her passport, she had come to the Kingdom when she was just 20.
Kutty said the Kerala Muslim Cultural Center — Kannur District Committee, had come forward to offer an air ticket for the maid to go to Colombo. “We will be able to repatriate her as soon as we find her an airline reservation,” Kutty said, adding that her mother from Kerala had informed him that she would come to receive the maid in the Sri Lankan capital.
An official from the Sri Lankan Embassy said the outpass was issued by the mission and added it was a mystery as to how she passed through Sri Lankan immigration when the minimum age for maids was fixed at 21.
Thanking the Indian organization for helping Sifana, the official said the maid was also entitled to a ticket to Colombo since she is registered with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
Unscrupulous recruitment agents sending underage maids to Saudi Arabia is a common trend, reports Arab News.
