By MD RASOOLDEEN | ARAB NEWS
RIYADH: A Sri Lankan housemaid was kept against her will by her Saudi sponsor and not paid since she came to the Kingdom in 1997, sources from the Jazan governorate said on Tuesday.
According to the sources, the authorities rescued 45-year-old Weerawardena Hettiarachchilage Indrani Mallika Hettiarachchi and arrested the sponsor on instructions from Jazan Gov. Prince Muhammad bin Nasser, who had been tipped off about the maid by a kind-hearted Saudi living in the neighborhood.
“It was the governor who took prompt action to rescue the maid from the clutches of the Saudi sponsor, who had kept her in captivity since she came to Jazan in 1997,” Deputy Jazan Gov. Abdullah Mohamed Al-Suwaid said.
The authorities had admitted her to the Social Affairs Protection Center in Jazan where she will stay until the sponsor pays her outstanding wages.
According to Al-Suwaid, the Saudi sponsor, who is currently in custody, had said that he cannot afford to pay the estimated SR60,000 in outstanding wages.
Hettiarachchi has two children back home — 20-year-old son Asanka Pradeep who is handicapped and 19-year-old daughter Dilrukshi who has just finished school.
The maid’s husband Sunil Premathilake told Arab News over the phone from the historical Sri Lankan city of Polannaruwe, 300 km from the capital of Colombo, that his family thought Hettiarachchi had died since there had been no news about her from the Kingdom.
Categories: Asia, Human Rights, Saudi Arabia