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I had to swallow nails, says housemaid
Subhashini, one of thousands of Sri Lankans working as housemaids in the Middle East, who was repeatedly forced to swallow nails by her abusive Saudi employer has spoken about the torture she suffered.
Subashini being wheeled out of the Puttalam Hospital after being admitted for an examination
The day it all came to a head she had been in severe pain from internal injuries caused by the nails she had been forced to swallow.
The woman who employed her had ordered her to wash clothes. Subhashini replied that she was in unbearable pain and could not work.
“When I told her that I was feeling ill she assaulted me and put a rope around my neck and threatened to kill me. She kept on assaulting me and forced me to swallow some nails and then insisted I do the washing by hand.
“I had severe pain in my stomach from the nails I swallowed. She kept assaulting me. I thought to myself that this should not happen to anyone,” said Subhashini, who like so many others going to the Middle East hoping to improve their family conditions return with experiences of torture and trauma.
The next day, when the landlord asked the reason for her illness, she told him what was happening to her in his house. She was immediately sent to Riyadh hospital.
Subhashini was afraid to reveal the reasons for the pain to the hospital authorities. When the doctors assured her she would not be sent to the same household again she told them the whole story.
“I only can remember the anaesthetic being administered and I fell unconscious,” she said.
After a week in hospital she was transferred to a rehabilitation centre where she was able to contact her family in Sri Lanka.
“I am a divorced person with a daughter who is looked after by my mother. We live in a little village,” she said.
Subashini’s humble home
According to Subhashini there are several Sri Lankan housemaids at Al-Musaba Rehabilitation Centre. They are waiting to return home after bitter experiences working in domestic service in Saudi Arabia.
Most of the 450,000 Sri Lankans working in Saudi Arabia are housemaids.
“I had to stay there till my case was over and I returned home on December 18,” Subhashini said. “The Foreign Employment Bureau made the necessary arrangements to provide an ambulance to transport me and admitted me to Puttalam Hospital for examination.”
With the introduction of the open economy in 1977 there are no fixed and rigorously applied criteria for supplying labour overseas.
While the government is making a huge investment in the employment of skilled workers unskilled womenfolk bring in the most foreign exchange.
The authorities barely specify rules for employment of these women who face unfortunate situations such as Subhashini experienced.
Uneducated women fall into the hands of uncertified employment agents who place the women in precarious situations.
A doctor examines an X ray of Subashini