 News
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From there to here to where now? Govt. not doing enough to repatriate more workers from Lebanon
With no signs of an immediate end to the fighting in Lebanon, the Sri Lankan Government has still not adopted a proper mechanism to address the hardships faced by Sri Lankan housemaids stranded in Lebanon. An urgent requirement is for the Government to
respond fast to reports that our housemaids are being denied access
to the Sri Lankan embassy in Beirut by their employers, lack of
basic facilities for those housed at the embassy and the lack of
a publicity campaign encouraging them to be repatriated home.
An FEB official told The Sunday Times that it was no easy task for embassy officials to look into the large number of inquiries as they were busy attending to other logistical matters such as making arrangements to repatriate those housemaids who have sought shelter in the embassy. He said if the government was seriously committed to repatriating housemaids caught in the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon then our embassy in Beruit should make a public announcement requesting Sri Lankans to come to the embassy. There have been many complaints from Lankan housemaids that their employers in Lebanon have withheld passports and monthly salaries of the housemaids to prevent them from returning to Sri Lanka. The FEB official said there was a shortage of food, housing and medical facilities for housemaids sheltering in the embassy. “Most shops and banks are closed. Even if shops open, there is a limit to what people can buy and in an environment of tension where warplanes are flying bombing sorties overhead and sounds of explosions echoing and re echoing around them it is not that easy to venture out to make purchases or for that matter for any other reason,” the official said. The housemaids who are accommodated at our embassy in Beirut are being supplied necessary provisions by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Caritas Lebanon and the embassy itself. FEB administration manager Priyantha Senanayake said in a war background people should not expect a perfect situation and said the authorities there were doing their best to respond to the needs and requirements of the refugees. He said the criteria adopted in selecting housemaids at the embassy, to be sent to Sri Lanka was on a first-come-first-served basis but some allege that there have been many instances where certain people were favoured over others by embassy officials. Leksetha centre and Caritas Lebanon also provide shelter to those housemaids seeking safety. It has also been reported that initially many housemaids who sought refuge in the Sri Lankan embassy were turned back because embassy employees were nowhere to be found as they too had gone underground fearing Israeli aerial attacks. The FEB official said it was ironic that despite more than 80,000 Sri Lankans being employed in Lebanon, no welfare officer was posted at the Sri Lankan embassy even prior to the breakout of hostilities though now a person had been tasked with the job. Reportedly the housemaids returning to Sri Lanka being transported in buses to various destinations were not accompanied by even a single FEB official except for the driver and the conductor and as such there was the ever present possibility of them falling prey to the evil designs of scheming individuals. Meanwhile Caritas Sri Lanka has asked people seeking information about their loved ones in Lebanon to provide their addresses and telephone numbers so that Caritas Lebanon could help locate them. Caritas Sri Lanka’s senior executive director Newman Fernando, said Caritas Lebanon has already been able to respond to 34 such inquiries on Sri Lankan housemaids in Lebanon. He said Caritas Sri Lanka coordinated with the FEB to transport returnees and to provide cash to housemaids who are helpless. Mr. Fernando said they were in the process of working out a long-term plan which could help improve the standard of living of the poor Sri Lankan housemaids who have become the victims of an unfortunate and bloody war.
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