21st February 2024
Yakalla, Ibbagamuwa
The story of brutality faced by Kumudini Sandya Kumari Seneviratne in Saudi Arabia is another incident that underpins the untold hardships our people, forced to work in the Middle East continue to face in 2024. With the collapsing of the economy in 2022, and the ongoing economic crisis, Kumudini is one of many women forced to seek employment abroad in the hope of making enough money to provide the basics for her family.
It is apparent, for example, in the villages served by the Athwela Partnership [The Grassrooted Trust, Women’s Development Foundation & Devasarana Development Centre] in the Ibbagamuwa Division of the Kurunegala District, that more and more women are leaving to help their children and spouses access the most rudimentary requirements. In a shrinking daily-wage rural economy, working abroad is perceived as an opportunity to eat more than flour, water and salt on a daily basis; some without money for bread and rice subsist on rotis and produce from their garden and/or produce from those who have gardens, and choose to share. Money that mothers send home are also expected to pay for school supplies and uniforms, sports equipment, tuition fees, bus fare, data for phones, and other everyday necessities that are now woven into the fabric of everyday rural living in Sri Lanka.
It is currently unclear if Kumudini’s employment placement agency is in anyway affiliated with the Foreign Bureau of Employment – the government body tasked with preparing our women and men to work abroad, and also to support them in the event of an emergency. Even if her employment placement agency is registered with the Foreign Bureau of Employment, she has still suffered incomprehensible cruelty at the hands of her employer. Imagine then the scores of women [mostly] who have been sent abroad by agencies and outfits that have no association with the Foreign Bureau of Employment. The Athwela Partnership has noticed the declining numbers of women in the villages we serve. In one village Mindful Menstruation Circle, we noted the numbers drop from 23 to 8, with 15 members leaving for the Middle East in 2023/2024.
Various employment agencies recruit women and girls [over 18] with the promise of covering all costs, including passport production and associated costs, flight tickets and visa fees, all on the express understanding that once they reach their destination, they have to work the stipulated period of TWO years at a salary determined in LKR. For example, to one of our female clients in Saudi Arabia LKR 120,000 was promised, paid directly to the stipulated bank account of worker/spouse/family in Sri Lanka. In actual fact, our client was prevented from knowing her actual salary paid by the employer. She is protected from foreign currency fluctuations. She was not burdened with any skills enhancement or training. The agreed LKR 120,000 has now been reduced to LKR 80,000 with little explanation to both worker and worker’s family. Yet, the worker continues. Her salary in Sri Lanka cleaning homes hardly aggregated to LKR 20,000 a month. 4 times as much is not as good as 6 times as much, but it is still significantly more. Her meals are guaranteed. Her employers don’t say much, are generally kind, and allow her an off day. Still, she is now thinking of returning to Sri Lanka. Her ten year old son has hardly been to school since she left six months ago. But they told her she cannot do that. TWO years. Fines. Penalties. Red cards and black lists.
Yes, as indicated, if workers refuse to stay where they are, then they have to pay back all associated costs, including flight tickets and a substantial penalty fee, which all acts as a deterrent, and forces women to stay the course even in the most miserable of circumstances. One case being currently handled by the Athwela Partnership includes a woman whose child fell ill just before she was due to leave and decided against economic migration given her child’s condition. The agency has hitherto refused to return her passport to her until she pays LKR200,000 which they estimate are their costs related to finding her a job. Another current case relates to a woman who changed employers in Dubai and has to pay the agency that placed her an additional LKR100,000 a month from her stipulated earnings, leaving her no savings.
The pitfalls around unregistered employment placement agencies are something that the current Minister of Labour keeps promising to address. In 2023 he reportedly cancelled 400 licenses.
“We worked hard to regulate the foreign employment sector during the past year. Consequently, the licences of 400 agencies have been cancelled thus far, including around 200 permanent licence cancellations. Almost all those agencies have blatantly violated the laws and have encouraged illegal ways of migration,” – The Morning, 18th December 2023
Despite this, spurious agencies continue to exploit workers by sending them abroad on visit and tourist visas, even abandoning them if they encounter difficulties with immigration officials at airports.
The urgency to travel abroad in the villages we serve lead to some women forging documents related to the birth of their children, falsifying records to help them leave their infant children. This is done to deflect the culture of blame that is building, which holds mothers alone responsible for the nurturing and development of a child in the family. If that child is in anyway put at risk by the remaining parent – most often the father – or appointed guardians, then the mother, slaving thousands of miles away, is held accountable. The current State Minister for Women and Children, Geetha Kumarasinghe continues to stoke the flames of recrimination by suggesting mothers of young children should be banned from working abroad.
““I think this is very very unfair. A two year old child can’t talk, let alone do anything on their own. They are not in safe hands. Therefore the women with such young children shouldn’t go to work, leaving their child. At least they should wait for the child to turn five years.” – Daily Mirror, 18th January 2024
As we point fingers at mothers for their many derelictions of duty and care, very rarely do we bother to hold fathers accountable for theirs. Fathers are generally perceived as inept and incapable of adequately nurturing their child, at best, and at worst are considered perpetrators of violence. For example, the Grave Crimes Abstract of the Sri Lankan Police before they disaggregated rape data in 2015, had a single data point: Rape/Incest with 2008 cases reported in 2014. The conflation of rape and incest in the grave crimes abstract is indicative of the high instances of incestuous rape. Yet, it was mothers who were deemed responsible for allowing their daughters to remain home alone with their fathers.
“The wife should’ve known her husband better.”
Developing a local and sustainable rural economy is an essential part of ensuring that our women, children and men get the opportunity to live with dignity. We cannot do this unless we stem the hemorrhaging of our workforce, where both skilled and unskilled workers leave in droves, driven by hunger and need. The bitterness of those left behind, the ensuing neglect and abandonment of children, cannot be rectified by Draconian policies that govern a woman’s reproductive life. Are there no solutions beyond forcing our workers abroad to encourage foreign remittance?
The efforts by the government to regulate, monitor and censure agencies and outfits that exploit workers must increase, with the wellbeing of all workers being our goal. At the end of last year the Minister agreed.
“Nanayakkara also noted that the investigation units of the Ministry and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) are conducting investigations continuously in order to stop illegal migration that could cause many inconveniences to both the Government and workers. He said that the units are conducting at least three to four raids per day in this exercise and also working to improve the quality of foreign employment agencies.” – The Morning, 18th December 2023
Earlier this week, the Minister went a step further.
“The Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara today urged the management of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment and the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies to submit proposals and plans to completely stop sending Sri Lankan women overseas to work as housemaids.
The Minister emphasized the importance of halting the practice of sending women for overseas employment as domestic workers and instead proposed that women should be encouraged to seek foreign jobs in high paying skilled categories of work.” – Newswire, 20th February 2024
What of the requisite skills development and training? The need for soundbites and coverage on the evening news often surpasses the need for actionable plans that ensure the safety and wellbeing of those he purports to represent. Unless we look after our working mothers and fathers, our dreams of rejuvenating this nation will continue to lie dormant and unrealized. Meanwhile, soundbites and news clips on youtube will continue unabated.