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Missing expat worker urged to report assault
View(s):Compensation available for victim, says bureau
The Bureau of Foreign Employment is searching for the Sri Lankan housekeeper assaulted by a compatriot in Saudi Arabia and says it cannot offer her compensation or take other action until she presents herself at the bureau. “We only have the evidence of a third-party witness,” Deputy General Manager Amal Randeniya said.
The woman had arrived back in Sri Lanka but could not be located at the address given in her passport. “She was a woman from Chunnakam in the north but she is currently not available at that address given in her passport,” Mr Randeniya said. He said the bureau had contacted the person who had videoed the expatriate Sri Lankan attacking the woman at a transit house operated by a foreign employment agent based in Damam in November last year.
The person who had filmed the attack, who is also a Sri Lankan, posted the video on his return to this country. The bureau’s Investigating Unit has recorded his statement, Mr Randeniya said. “We could easily identify both the Saudi agent and Sri Lankan expatriate as they were registered with us,” he added.
Mr. Randeniya said the Saudi national who operated the transit house was registered with the bureau. The alleged attacker, who is also registered with the bureau, was an employee of the agent. “This man was assaulting the woman with his foot while abusing her in filth,” Mr Randeniya said.
Transit houses such as this are operated by the foreign agents to provide accommodation for expatriate workers who run away from original sponsors due to reasons such as an unpleasantenvironment, non-payment of wages and for personal issues such a desire to return home. “It seems this agent had forced the woman to go to another employer whom she did not like,” he said.
When the alleged attacker returned to Sri Lanka the bureau, with the help of Immigration officials, arrested him and produced in the Colombo Magistrate court. Unfortunately, the court had to release him because the legal system could not frame charges against a crime committed outside Sri Lanka, Mr Randeniya said. He admitted,that there nothing preventing the man from leaving the country again.
Mr. Randeniya said that there were no reports of the man attacking other women who had been at the house at the time. There were no reports of the woman being sexually assaulted or any evidence to indicate that the man had harassed the women over a long period.
The bureau has, however, already suspended both him and the Saudi national from operating and working at the agency.
Mr. Randeniya said the bureau’s representatives at the Embassy in Riyadh would intervene to find alternative employers to the 10 to 15 other women who were there at the facility. They would summon the foreign agents and discuss the terms of agreements for the women, he added
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