|
|
The Daily Star
January 31, 2013 08:48 PM (Last updated: January 31, 2013
08:55 PM)
BEIRUT:
Sri Lanka’s plan to ban women travelling abroad to work in menial jobs excludes
Lebanon, a Sri Lankan government minister said Thursday in Beirut, as the two
countries draft an agreement over the issue.
“[There
is] no ban on the travel of domestic workers and Sri Lankan labor to Lebanon,
on the contrary we are working to better the conditions of their experiences
here and raise the age of those with the right to travel from 21 to 23,” Sri
Lankan Minister of Foreign Employment and Social Services Dylan Pereira told
reporters.
His
comments came after meeting Lebanon’s Labor Minister Salim Jreissati at the
latter’s office.
Pereira
also said that his country is teaching its citizens both Arabic and English so
that they can communicate better with their employers in Lebanon.
The
meeting between the two officials was aimed at drafting a new agreement that
will soon be signed governing Sri Lankan labor rights.
Jreissati
said Lebanon guarantees decent labor and fair wages for domestic workers,
adding that he is drafting a code of conduct for decent labor.
Following
the beheading of a 17-year-old nanny in Saudi Arabia, Sri Lankan Information
Minister Keheliya Rambukwella announced last Thursday that women under 25 were
now banned from going to the Arab state to work as maids.
Sri
Lankan Rizana Nafik was charged with smothering a four-month-old baby in Saudi
Arabia in 2005.
Lebanon
has seen many cases of abuse against domestic workers with activists
criticizing the sponsorship system for promoting such practices.
In
a 2008 report, Human Rights Watch found that there was an average of one death
a week from unnatural causes among domestic workers in Lebanon, including
suicide and falls from tall buildings.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2013/Jan-31/204511-sri-lanka-ban-on-maids-abroad-excludes-lebanon-min.ashx#ixzz2JcCmH7pB
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
