A helping hand

LP Ariyawathie is back at her at her village and recovering thanks to the care of family and well wishers after a successful surgery which removed nails from various parts of her body.

Agency banned

The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) has decided to ban with immediate effect the recruitment agency which sent L.T Ariyawathie to her Employers in Saudi Arabia.

The Chairman of the bureau, Kingsley Ranawaka said the bureau is to conduct investigations into the incident and will also look into complaints made against the recruitment agency.
Nails and pins had been inserted into Ariyawathie’s body by her Saudi employer while she worked as a maid at the house. She underwent a major three hour operation on Friday and is now recovering.(Daily Mirror)

Saudi govt. finds information regarding employers that tortured Lankan maid

Saudi-Arabian government has been able to detect information regarding the employers who had inserted nails in to the body of the maid who had gone to Saudi-Arabia From Kamburupitiya, Matara for employment.




According to the reports both electronic and printed media of Saudi-Arabia has given priority to this incident. The media had pointed out that the incident was a stigma to reputation of Saudi-Arabia and it produces misunderstanding about Arabic countries in rest of the world. Therefore Media institutions in Saudi-Arabia have requested their government to hold an investigation about the issue and operate the law strictly against the employers who had tortured the victim.
(News-Lankatruth)

Muslim Congress decides to support constitutional amendment

The Executive Committee of teh SLMC has decided to give their overall support to the government for the proposed constitutional amendment the leader of SLMC Mr. Rauf Hakeem said. He said this when he met the media following Executive Committee meeting of the party held yesterday (27).

SLMC has decided to give their fullest support for 2/3 majority to the government in Parliament and outside to pass the proposed constitutional amendment he emphasized.
(News-Lankatruth)

Women among 56 nabbed in Kandy illicit liquor raid

The Kandy Special Excise Unit arrested 56 suspects including eight women who had engaged in the sale of illicit liquor during the Kandy Perahera season.
They also seized a stock of kasippu and other illicit brew worth a street value of nearly Rs 400,000. The suspects had engaged in this illicit business in Kandy, Gampola and Pujapitiya areas in the Kandy District as well as areas in the Wayamba and Sabaragamuwa Provinces. Excise Unit officers also raided a kasippu distillery in Wayamba and seized 800 bottles of kasippu readied for dispatch to Kandy along with some distilling equipment. (Daily News)

Housemaid case to be reported to Saudi Govt

Steps have been taken by the Government to report the matter to the Saudi Government in respect of the housemaid who had returned from Saudi Arabia with 23 nails inside her body, due to torture by her Saudi employer, Economic Development Deputy Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardane told the media yesterday.
Minister Abeywardane said the housemaid had never previously worked in the Middle East.
The Job Agency had provided false information through a certificate confirming that she had ten years work experience in the Middle East.
The Sri Lanka Government will report this matter to the Saudi Arabian Government to seek adequate compensation for her, the Minister added.(DailyNews)

Sri Lanka maid says Saudi boss stuck nails in her

A Sri Lankan maid returned from her job in Saudi Arabia with 24 nails inside her body — the result of torture by the family who employed her, a doctor and government official said Wednesday.
L.G. Ariyawathi's body is riddled with needles and nails, which are scheduled to be removed Friday, a doctor confirmed Wednesday.
Ariyawathi, 49, returned to Sri Lanka on Saturday from Saudi Arabia and was hospitalized the next day with severe pain at a facility about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away from capital, Colombo, according to media reports.
She told a local newspaper that her employers tortured her with the nails as punishment.
"They (employer and his family) did not allow me even to rest. The woman at the house had heated the nails and then the man inserted them into my body," Ariyawathi was quoted as saying in the Lakbima, a newspaper published in local Sinhalese language.
She told the paper that she went to Saudi Arabia in March and was paid only two months' salary, with her employer withholding three months' salary to buy an air ticket to send her home.
Dr. H.K.K. Satharasinghe of Kamburupitiya hospital said X-rays show Ariyawathi has 24 nails and needles in her body. The nails range from 1-2 inches.
Her initial puncture wounds have healed over, the doctor told The Associated Press by telephone. However, she finds difficult to walk because she has two nails in her knee and two in her ankles.
Another needle is in her forehead, and the rest are in hands, he said.
"Her condition is stable, but we are giving antibiotics and painkillers," Satharasinghe said, adding that doctors will begin removing the nails on Friday.
The 24 nails are "inside the body due to torture meted out by her Saudi employer," Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, deputy minister of economic development, said in a statement on a government website.
Abeywardena said the government would "report about this matter to the Saudi Government and provide her adequate compensation."
Kalyana Priya Ramanayake, a spokesman for Sri Lanka's Foreign Employment Bureau, said that Ariyawathi had been too afraid to complain about the abuse to Saudi authorities, fearing that her employers might not let her return home. She also did not report the abuse to Sri Lankan officials, until she was hospitalized.
The bureau is a government agency that oversees the welfare of expatriate workers.
Working as maids or drivers, Sri Lankan workers can earn higher salaries overseas. About 1.5 million Sri Lankans work abroad, nearly 400,000 of them in Saudi Arabia alone.