Lankan domestic worker ‘enslaved’ in Kuwait for 13 years
July 15, 2010 07:50 am
She only dreamt of buying a new home for her mother. However, it remained just that - a dream. Instead of earning a cozy job, good salary and savings she fell into the clutches of a cruel and merciless employer for over 13 years without pay.
Fifty seven year old
Kamalawathie Katawala has been working for her sponsor since 1997. (Kuwait
Times had reported yesterday that she worked for 17 years. However, the
Struggling to accomplish her dream of buying a house, she embarked on another
overseas challenge. She obtained a new visa for
Three days after arriving from
She asked for her salary, a month after her arrival, “They asked me why I
needed money. For what? I told them because I was working to earn money. But
they mocked me,” she said. “From then on, the same story was repeated every
month. I would ask for my salary but I would never get any. They said they have
no money. I really believed that since they did not have any air-conditioning
facilities installed at home. I would sleep on the floor at night. I would
place wet towel on their beds for cooling. I did th
e same to the place where I would sleep,” she said. These living conditions
changed after a few years, she recalled.
After two years, I tried to escape. I went out, hid in the car with my bag. But
when I tried to cross the street, they saw me run. They quickly grabbed me,
beat me up again and locked me inside the room for one day. They warned me
against trying to escape again. They said they would kill me. So from then on,
I didn’t even try to escape anymore,” she sobbed.
She explained that she was forced to obey strict orders. “I also stopped asking
for money because I was really afraid,” she said. Kamala is not aware of the
number of years that have elapsed since being ‘employed’ with her sponsor. She
has lost count of days and months and remembers having tried to place an
unsuccessful phone call to an acquaintance in her home town of
A few months ago, a compatriot named Guita arrived at her sponsor’s home to
work as a domestic helper. She suffered under the same appalling conditions.
Also, whenever Guita inquired about Kamala not being allowed to leave on
vacation, the sponsor would lie, “They told Guita that I don’t like to leave
their home. They told her that I was sent to the airport many times but I would
refuse to board a plane. But those are lies. I was never allowed to go to the
airport; not even once,” she told Kuwait Times.
So when Guita planned to escape, I asked her not to leave me alone,” she said.
They finally snatched a life-changing opportunity on June 26, “We walked out
and hid between passing cars so as to avoid being caught by our sponsor. When
we reached a co-operative society, Guita asked me to hide behind a bush. The
plan was to hire a taxi that would take us to the embassy. I waited for long
until I gave up and hired one on my own. I thought that our employer had caught
her,” she said.
But an hour later, Guita arrived at the Sri Lankan embassy, pleading with
authorities to help Kamala. She was oblivious to the fact that Kamala was
already there. Both were reunited at the embassy’s premises. At the time of
writing this, Kamala is still unaware of the fact that her mother whom she
loved dearly had passed away almost a year ago. The information was relayed to
Kuwait Times by a Sri Lankan embassy official who had contacted Kamala’s
family. She looks forward to returning to her family - to be with her mother,
two brothers and two sisters. She acknowledged that her dream to build a home
for her mother was never fulfilled. The Sri Lankan Ambassador to Kuwait Sarath
Dissanayake has promised to resort to proper legal channels to resolve Kamala’s
issue.
kuwaittimes