The housemaid who lost her national identity and was languishing in a deportation center in Riyadh was sent back home Monday after the Sri Lankan Embassy here agreed to issue her an out-pass. Kamaleswari (28) who arrived in the capital on a housemaid's visa with the fake name “Rajani” some three years ago was forced to work with more than one employer. Kamaleswari reached Riyadh from Colombo on Nov. 6, 2006 and was housed in accommodation provided by a manpower recruiting agency. She was sent to work in a household in Riyadh for a year on a monthly basic salary of SR500, although she received only three-months salary. She was then transferred to work with another employer for over 18 months. While working with both employers she was not paid the agreed upon salary. Moreover, she never knew where her passport was being kept and in her fight to get her delayed salaries, her passport was lost. When Kamaleswari expressed her desire to go back home to India, she was sent to the deportation center. Kamaleswari wanted to go back to India since her husband and children lived in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Being uneducated, Kamaleswari did not even know on which passport she had traveled to Saudi Arabia. The Federation of Keralite Associations in Saudi Arabia (Fokasa), an umbrella organization of 22 social outfits, intervened and tried to trace her passport from the manpower agency, but all efforts were in vain. Fokasa then approached the Indian Embassy with a request to repatriate Kamaleswari to India. But in the absence of proper ID papers, the Indian Embassy refused to issue her an out-pass. R. Murleedharan, Fokasa president for the Central Province, said the woman turned out to be a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka who spent 22 years in India with her relatives and later was married to an Indian husband by whom she had two children. “The Indian Embassy refused to issue an out-pass to Kamaleswari because she came to Saudi Arabia from Sri Lanka under a false name,” he said. However, the Sri Lankan Embassy agreed to issue an out-pass and Kamaleswari left Saudi Arabia with a heavy heart, because she has no relatives or place to stay in Sri Lanka. Murleedharan said Kamaleswari was in a dilemma as she has no one to take care of her in Sri Lanka. “She (Kamaleswrai) doesn't know where to stay in Sri Lanka. But she was hopeful to go back to Tamil Nadu soon after reaching Sri Lanka to be with her children and husband,” he said. Kamaleswari is not the only housemaid, who has landed in such a trouble, said Murleedharan. The number of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees coming to work as housemaids in Saudi Arabia is on the rise, particularly after the Indian government fixed a minimum age limit of 40 years for housemaids, he added. Pushparani (35), whom Fokasa staff members met in the deportation center, is another housemaid who arrived in Saudi Arabia under circumstances similar to that of Kamaleswari, he said. Fokasa is now coordinating with Sri Lankan Embassy officials to send her home. Pushparani, also a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka, has been in Riyadh's detention center for the past four months. She went to India a long time ago and from that time has been living with her relatives and husband, who is an employee of Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) in Bangalore. She came to Saudi Arabia on a Sri Lankan passport. She lost her national identity after she ran away from her sponsor because of non-payment of salary and long working hours. Murleedharan said that housemaids' passports are usually deposited with the manpower provider or with the housemaid's sponsor. “The issue of housemaids has become a problem for the countries they come from and for Saudi Arabia since nobody can guarantee their repatriation back home,” he said.
