At least 33 migrant workers who left Sri Lanka to find employment in Kuwait have returned to the island after concerns about their working environments forced them to leave.
The Sri Lankan embassy in Kuwait had to co-ordinate with the Middle Eastern government to ensure the workers were kept in a safe house before they were able to leave the country.
There are an estimated 100,000 migrant workers from Sri Lanka in Kuwait, predominately compromised of female domestic workers.
A study into domestic workers by the Arab Times underlined the widespread mistreatment of domestic workers. The paper found that 28% of employers refuse to give domestic workers a single day of rest weekly and nearly half of employers did not allow their domestic workers to leave their house during rest days.
Thousands of Tamil women have sought employment in the Gulf, primarily as domestic workers, where abuse and exploitation and even enslavement is frequently reported. Many also report being exploited, defrauded out of their wages and being left trapped or abandoned on foreign soil by the agencies which organise the employment and travel.
We need your support
Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.
Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view
We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.
For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.
