Rizana’s unfortunate death: A wake-up call for authorities

Rizana’s unfortunate death is a wake-up call for the authorities in Sri Lanka on the need to sit back and take stock of their Foreign Employment policy – especially for housemaids. At the end of the day it is the Government’s responsibility as foreign employment is a major foreign exchange earner for the country.

Since the eighties, when a need for domestic help in the Middle-East flourished, our young women, mostly from the rural Sri Lanka, were attracted to follow a rainbow with promises of better financial gains. Migrating to the Middle East to work as housemaids became fashionable among the unemployed women. But little did they know or was told that the money pot at the end of the rainbow was a just the carrot to entice our young women to work under questionable and deplorable conditions. Most left behind infants and families in the hope of a better future from the income they were promised. Statistics show that housemaids – an easily exploitable group - were the largest sector among the foreign employment migrants and mostly ended up in the Middle-East with Saudi Arabia taking in the majority.

The boom was so big that the revenue and income brought into the country soon surpassed the traditional foreign exchange earners like tea, rubber, coconut and tourism. This big financial inflow unfortunately became ‘dirty business’ and opened the door to exploitation of these poor housemaids.
Rizana’s death has brought reactions from all over the world – mainly condemning the inhuman beheading of a young girl who at the time of her ‘recruitment’ may not have known what this big foreign adventure was all about. The agency or people behind her recruitment should be investigated and brought to justice as she was a minor when she left Sri Lanka. Some people obviously manipulated her with the promise of foreign employment and financial gains. Those who made real money were always the unscrupulous agents and the middle men who sprung up like mushrooms all over the land.
Let us be honest to ourselves – how many of these housemaids actually have a clue of what a housemaid’s responsibilities are? Doing their own little chores in their homes and sometimes taking care of their younger siblings do not qualify them to be professional housemaids. How many of them have used the tools they are expected to use as housemaids? Cleaning material, vacuum cleaners, dish washers, washing machines and cooking new recipes – all these could be daunting challenges. Only years of experience in similar surroundings can give them the confidence to go through something like this. In addition, most housemaids speak only one language – either Sinhala or Tamil and how is this going to help them in their new environment? Communication difficulties can only bring a suppressed status with the employers who take full advantage of the situation. Let’s not forget, they are also being thrown into a totally new culture and this can only be a nightmare for the women who grew up in a different culture back home. It could also be a misguided concept that Muslim housemaids will get preferential treatment in the Middle East because of the common religion.
We have all seen images of Rizana’s village and home, where she was hoping to return and provide a better future for her family. Can we imagine a young girl from this environment ending up as a ‘housemaid’ in a household in the Middle-East where everything surrounding her was alien? She would not have had a clue of where to start and what to do. She herself was a mere child and was given the responsibility of looking after an infant.

How come we have allowed our young women to be exploited in this manner for decades – both locally by these unscrupulous agents and by their foreign hosts? Is the government doing enough to make sure that these women get a fair deal? Are the authorities sensitising these‘potential housemaids’ by providing adequate training facilities or awareness programmes? It would not be surprising to learn that those sending these young women to foreign homes have themselves any clue of a professional housemaid’s responsibilities. Most of these young women have never travelled even within their own country and to be suddenly exposed to a totally different world outside could be traumatic.

 On a few occasions I have encountered these young women – all herded into flights for their new destinations and have no inkling of where they are heading or what they are supposed to do when they arrive at their destinations. Even filling simple forms at the airport is a sad challenge for them. I have taken the opportunity to speak with some of them and it was really sad and humiliating to witness what was happening and what they are put through with the promise of better income.  The young women did not have a clue of what was expected of them. I am quite certain that none of them had any idea of their employment contracts either –because the less they knew was better for their agents and the employers. This total ignorance, is the story of almost all housemaids who take up employment in the Middle-East. ‘Housemaid’ is a very generic word and our young women – most from the rural areas – have fallen victim to an idea that being a housemaid is not anything more than what they are used to do at home.

Unless the authorities are ready to genuinely look after our precious export of housemaids by providing professional training facilities and preparing them mentally to face foreign employment opportunities, including language training, we as a nation will be using our women as a trading commodity to be exploited by these employment agencies and foreign hosts.  Let Rizana’s unfortunate death bring a new chapter to these exploited women of Sri Lanka.
Mr. Rajap (A Concerned Lankan in Switzerland )