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In March of this year, Lahadapurage Daneris Ariyawathie left her home in Batuwita, Sri Lanka, to seek employment as a housemaid in the Middle East. Mistreated, underfed and unpaid for months, her employers hammered metal nails into her body after she complained of being overworked. She was flown back to Sri Lanka in late August where she underwent a three hour surgery; doctors were successfully able to remove all 24 metal pieces.
Rita Joseph can no longer walk. Her legs are broken, her backbone fractured. A Sri Lankan migrant, she worked as a domestic maid for employers who physically beat her to the point where she was afraid to sleep in fear of being hit. Out of sheer desperation, Rita jumped from the second floor to escape the inhumane torture and brutality inflicted upon her.
Countless women have been subjected to sexual and verbal abuse, low wages, and torture and in some cases death as a result. However, little is commonly known about the significance female migration holds for this island. Second to only the garments industry, migrant workers are Sri Lanka’s second largest export, forming 7.7 percent of the nation’s GDP. Women constitute a sizeable majority of the migrant population and since 90 percent of these females are unskilled, they are mainly employed as domestic workers in the nearby Gulf States and the Middle East.
Given a massive migration rate, stories such as those of Rita Joseph and L.D. Ariyawathie are often assumed to be rare glitches, unlucky cases causing a stir amongst human rights activists. If such instances were commonplace, why then would 200,000 women continue to cross national boundaries each year? And, more importantly, why would they be willing to compromise their personal wellbeing to such a great degree?
While such questions and assumptions are justified, cases of human and labor rights violations faced by housemaids are no longer unusual. Yes, women who have positive experiences still outnumber those who do not but the fact is, the number of complaints has increased sharply. In 2009, these horrific incidents formed five percent of overall foreign recruitment and sporadically continue to make shocking headlines.
Channeling massive amounts of foreign exchange, the role of the female migrant worker in the Sri Lankan economy cannot be undermined. Yet, in spite of increasing atrocities, these women continue to seek employment overseas. Weighing their economic importance with the cruelty they face begs the question: at what cost? The frequency of these events reveals a delicate balance confronting Sri Lanka, one between promoting foreign employment and protecting national workers abroad.
In efforts to address these concerns, bodies such as the Ministry for Foreign Employment and Promotion and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), have been formed to facilitate employment and protect migrant workers internationally. In their ineffectiveness lies the real plight of Sri Lankan female migrants - a lack of regularization plagues this Diaspora. Even though the government has introduced formal agencies, the scope of their services remains heavily insufficient due to the overwhelming demand of the locals.
The main governing body, the SLBFE is unable to authorize a substantial portion of the migrant population, creating a void filled by private employers. Being present at only a few airports in the country, the SLBFE is unable to provide its legal, labor protection, documentation and authorization services to the masses residing in other areas. Without formal agreements, violations are extremely difficult to counter. Migrant females remain unprotected in foreign lands and cannot hold their employers accountable to illegal behavior.
For private recruiters, on most occasions, formal contracts do not exist. With the help of monetary offers, they are able to entice poor women with a shot at a non poverty-stricken life. In the rare case that contracts do exist, they are unregulated and informal and can therefore be easily breached by the employer. With unauthorized contracts at best, female migrants, again, are left to the mercy of their employers and in certain unfortunate cases, remain trapped in dismal conditions. With governing bodies like the SLBFE, it is clear that the legal framework for foreign employment is in place. The expansion of regularization and formal documentation from the Sri Lankan government, catering specifically to the masses, is the key to countering brutalities faced by the nation’s female migrant workers. 
Rabia Hashmi holds Bachelors from Bard College in Anthropology and Economics. She is currently a social researcher with the InterActive Research and Development - a non-profit research and service organization committed to saving lives through improvements in global health.
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