Manpower Agency Pays Compensation for Maid’s Death - Workers/Sril Lanka/Philippines
Mohammed Rasooldeen; 7/2/08
A diamond necklace worth SR4,000 and SR3,500 in cash is part of the compensation that will be given to a Sri Lankan woman whose daughter starved to death in October 2005 while working as a maid in the Kingdom. Al-Nashwan Recruiting Company in Riyadh handed over the compensation to W.S.M.S. Wijesundera, charge d’affaires at the Sri Lankan Embassy, yesterday. The money and jewelry will reportedly be sent to the maid’s mother, Ratnaseeli, to help the maid’s impoverished family in Gonapola, a remote village in the Kalutara district of Sri Lanka. Vasanthi came to the Kingdom in October 2000 and died five years later from complications attributed to malnutrition, according to an autopsy. It was discovered that the maid had not received her salary for the period of her work and compensation for the unpaid labor alone would amount to SR24,000.
Stranded Filipinos Set Up Camp Inside Consulate in Jeddah
Charles Tabbu & Ronald Concha; 7/2/08
A total of 84 stranded Filipinos, who have been staying under a bridge in Jeddah’s Kandarah district for the past weeks, moved to the Philippine Consulate General yesterday to press their appeal for immediate repatriation. “We intend to remain here at the consulate and hope that our government would gather its resolve and help us return to our families in the Philippines,” one of the workers said as they put up tents inside the consulate compound. The group includes 10 women, two babies and 72 men, who ran away from their employers in Riyadh or the Eastern Province, and were transported to Jeddah reportedly by “fixers” with the promise that they could leave the Kingdom through a “backdoor” exit.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=106534&d=7&m=2&y=2008