Sri Lankan Maids Become Victims in Saudi Arabia
Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010
By Amantha Perera / Colombo
Spending five years in a Saudi Arabian jail while facing death by beheading would be traumatic for anyone, let alone for
a 17-year-old thousands of miles away from home.
But that's exactly what Rizana Fathima Nafeek, who moved to Riyadh from Sri Lanka to work as a maid, has endured since
2005. Nafeek, now 22, has spent the past half decade in a Riyadh prison facing a death sentence in a country, of which
language she does not speak and where she does not have any relatives. Her job, obtained through a Sri Lankan
recruitment agency, was supposed to be the ticket out of abysmal poverty for her family, says her mother, Razeena
Nafeek. The family of six found it hard to get by on the income that Mohammed Nafeek, her father, earned as a woodcutter
in the remote village of Muttur, east of Colombo. "We pinned all our hopes on the job," she adds.
But that opportunity turned into a nightmare just one month after Nafeek — who, at 17, had forged documents that she was
above the legal working age of 18 — began her job in the Saudi household. Her employers accused her of murdering their
4-month-old infant. Nafeek later told her mother that the infant accidentally choked while being bottle-fed by her. She
had no prior experience taking care of a young child, her mother said.
Nafeek was found guilty of the charge and sentenced to death — a conviction that rights groups say was based on a
confession made under duress and the forged passport that changed her status to that of an adult. But last month, the
sentence was upheld by Saudi Arabia's highest court, prompting a fresh wave of appeals from Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa and international rights groups, such as Amnesty International and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC),
to Saudi's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud seeking Nafeek's pardon. The European Union and the U.N. Office of the
High Commissioner of Human Rights have indicated that they, too, will be making similar appeals. If the King ratifies
the sentence, then execution by beheading would be imminent.
Nafeek's may be the most high-profile case facing a Sri Lankan domestic worker in the Middle East, but it is not the
first and will not be the last. In 2009, over 77,000 Sri Lankan women went to the Middle East as domestic workers, and
some 42,000 went to Saudi Arabia, according to that government's statistics. Sri Lankan women working abroad play a
vital role in the Sri Lankan economy; of the nation's over 1 million overseas workers, women's paychecks accounted for
more than half of the $3.4 billion sent back to Sri Lanka in foreign remittances last year.
Like Nafeek, most of these women come from the nation's poorest families and hardly have any prior work experience. The
unskilled nature of their work and expectations of their employers can make for a volatile work environment, often
complicated further by the lack of a common language. "Sri Lankan migrant workers face a multitude of obstacles at all
stages of the migration process: predeparture, in service, and upon return and reintegration," says Pramodini
Weerasekera, a program officer with the International Labor Organization, which is advising the Sri Lankan government on
enhancing training networks and sending more skilled workers abroad. "Many of these issues stem from the skill-level
profile of Sri Lanka's migrant work force where the majority of workers fall within the low-skilled and housemaid
categories."
In 2009, there were 4,500 complaints lodged by maids working in Saudi Arabia to Colombo's Foreign Employment Bureau.
Most complaints were about a lack of communication, sexual harassment or no payment of wages, but some were much worse.
Last week, a domestic worker who returned to central Sri Lanka from Jordan reported being forced to swallow at least six
nails. Over the weekend, another woman who returned from Kuwait had 14 nails removed from her body at a hospital in the
central Sri Lankan town of Kurunegala. These cases follow close on the heels of yet another gruesome story: in August,
50-year-old Lahanda Purage Ariyawathie, a grandmother of two, returned to Sri Lanka from Saudi Arabia five months after
accepting a job as a maid. Her body was dotted with small, oozing wounds. Doctors later removed over 20 nails and
needles that had been embedded in her body. Ariyawathie said that hot nails were embedded in her body by her Saudi
employers who were dissatisfied with her work. Saudi authorities have rejected the claim.
Ariyawathie says that language — or the lack of a common one — was the main cause of her troubles. "They did not
understand what I said, and I did not understand what they said. They asked for lime, and I would bring tomatoes," she
says. Her alleged torture sequence began after about two weeks at the household, when her employers' patience ran out.
She says that the woman would hold her while the man inserted the hot nails into her. Months later, she was released
from the job and returned home when her wounds did not heal and began to fester.
The inability to communicate appears to be a big factor in Nafeek's case as well. Her family says she does not speak
Arabic, and they are unsure whether she received any training before her departure. She could not understand the court
proceedings, according to Basil Fernando, director of policy and program development at the AHRC. The Hong Kong–based
advocacy group has been paying for Nafeek's legal help during the appeals process. "We just want our daughter back. She
has suffered enough," says Nafeek's mother. The family spoke to Nafeek during the last week of October. She sounded
frightened and scared, still waiting to hear when and if her sentence would be carried out. "She does not know whether
it is likely to be any time soon or whether we have some more time," says her mother. "Neither do we."
Fortunately, those who are closely monitoring the case like Fernando say there is still hope for Nafeek. Available
evidence, including Nafeek's retraction of her confession made to police, suggests that the infant died due to an
accident, and the sentence is being evaluated by an adviser to the Saudi King. One opposition MP has told Nafeek's
family that the Saudis are expected to make a favorable decision after the hajj pilgrimage ends later this week, due to
international appeals.
But, AHRC's Fernando cautions that Riyadh has carried out sentences without any prior warning in the past. As Nafeek's
family waits in fear for any news, leniency for their daughter has replaced the wish for a better life. "We don't want
anything," says her mother, fighting back tears. "We just want her back."
ENDS