{"id":92562,"date":"2019-08-24T16:30:01","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T23:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=92562"},"modified":"2019-08-24T16:33:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-24T23:33:58","slug":"the-plight-of-some-who-might-not-see-the-light-never-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/08\/24\/the-plight-of-some-who-might-not-see-the-light-never-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The plight of some, who might not see the light never again."},"content":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The letter by \u2018JAYMAN\u2019 in the opinion column of the \u2018Island\u2019 of 20-08-19 titled \u2018Ban export of slave labour to West Asia\u2019 once again reminds us of the misery and the suffering the daughters of Mother Lanka go through, while working as domestic aides in the ME.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of these unfortunate women ranging from quite young (possibly just past the teenage) to middle-aged often choose to go to these countries because of poverty, which the rulers of their Motherland cannot do anything about. Or it is quite likely that these politicians are burdened by and saddled with more urgent problems and the plight of these women doesn\u2019t seem as one needing \u2018top-priority attention\u2019, in spite of the fact that their foreign exchange earnings constitute a formidable fraction, if not the biggest, of the total foreign exchange earnings coming into the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when incident after\nincident, which we hear from time to time about some of these hapless,\nunfortunate women getting beaten, tortured and even maimed and murdered by\ntheir masters, both the past and the present governors of the nation remained\nand continue to remain blind to the tragedy and for all intents and purposes\nthey do seem to be wholly unperturbed by those tragic incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One would find it hard to\nunderstand let alone describe their callous disregard for the well-fare and\nwellbeing of these poor workers, who or nearly most of them become virtual\nslaves to these aliens, not because they like it or want it. They do not have any\nother option, when the heads of their country haven\u2019t shown any interest in\ndesigning and launching short-term and long-term island-wide poverty\nalleviation programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nTemporary reliefs mostly with hidden political agendas are given out with lots\nof fanfare. Yet we all know the sustainability of such handouts. Even if they\nare sustained somehow, with great cost to the nation, the consequent economic\nramifications will materialise in time to come. So all will be back to where\nthey were before, with or without that increased \u2018Samurdhi\u2019 allowances and\nother handouts. So in the end the poor will stay poor or become poorer and our\nwomen virtually lambs to the slaughter will continue to board planes bound for\nthese countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nAnd going back to those alien masters even though they now are supposedly\nliving in modernity, most of them are still close in their mindset to a people,\nwho lived in medieval times, living in those god-forsaken, arid, desert lands\nand their attitude towards their own women is well known. And when it comes to\nforeign women, it is quite natural for them to look down upon and treat them\nlike slaves. It is quite unlikely that those people will look at these women as\npaid workers, who need to be treated with dignity and respect too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do not wish to go much\nfurther. Many a concerned citizen has written about these Sri Lankan domestic\naides working in the ME. Their working conditions and how they are treated by\ntheir masters are not secrets anymore, except perhaps to our politicians in the\ngovernment and the relevant authorities, who still seem unconvinced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the elections are not far\naway. Lots of things are given in the form of promises and in kind and in cash\ntoo. Sanctimony and sincerity, both obviously phony, targeting the gullible voter,\nin particular, are over flowing almost everywhere.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s hope that whoever is\ngoing to sit at the helm next, will seriously do something about these\ndaughters of Mother Lanka too and start work paving the way to stop this\npoverty-driven exodus to the ME.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly,\nI have written two letters on the same subject, the first one fifteen years ago\nand the other just one year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

http:\/\/archives.dailynews.lk\/2004\/07\/13\/letters.html#1l<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has\nanything changed since?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Where the flight ends and the plight begins<\/a><\/blockquote>