A fundamental rights petition has been filed before the Supreme Court asking for an order, to the Minister of Labor and Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of the Ministry to prepare a set of guidelines indicating how the officers of the Foreign Employment Bureau should deal with repatriating Sri Lankan women who are oppressed while engaged in domestic work in the Middle East, providing them with the necessary legal assistance and repatriating them. (Sri Lanka Latest News)
Attorney at law Mr. Manjula Balasuriya, filed this case on behalf of a woman named Sellaiya Kali Amma, a resident of Vavuniya, who was harassed as a domestic worker in Oman.
As the respondents, the Chairman of Foreign Employment Bureau, A.A.M. Hilmi and its directors, Minister of Labor and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara, Secretary of the Ministry, Ambassador of Oman Amir Ajwad and 11 others have been named.
It is stated in the petition that the woman named Kali Amma, the petitioner, went to Oman for domestic work in April 2022, and before going to Oman, she had been engaged in domestic work for 06 years in Lebanon and 03 years in Kuwait.
It is stated that after she went to work as a maid in a house in Oman, she was harassed in that house and the employers of that house decided to send her out of the house stating that her work was unsatisfactory.
After that, the woman in question was sent to a security center located in Oman, where there were about 30 aggrieved women and the women there are subjected to various abuses and they are not getting enough food, the petition has alleged.
Later, the women who stayed there, including a woman named Kali Amma, started a protest and it is said that they were arrested by the local police on May 25.
Her family members requested the office of the Foreign Employment Service Bureau located in Vavuniya to bring this woman back to Sri Lanka, and for that the officials first asked for an amount of 10 lakh rupees and then 6 lakh rupees, and her family members do not have that much money indicated in the petition .
There is a situation where this woman is unable to get legal assistance, and the petitioner’s lawyer requests the court to issue an order to the respondents to take the necessary steps to bring the woman in question back to Sri Lanka.
They have also petitioned to issue an order to the officers of the Foreign Employment Bureau to arrange for the financial support needed to obtain legal assistance in the legal proceedings against her in Oman.
Pointing out that the responsibility of ensuring the rights and safety of women who leave for domestic work in the Middle East has been assigned to the Foreign Employment Bureau, the petitioner’s lawyer has asked the Supreme Court to give a verdict that the basic human rights of the woman named Kali Amma have been violated .
