Report on tortured Sri Lankan housemaid to be given to Saudi government

Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau says that a report on the incident of torturing a Sri Lankan housemaid allegedly by the employers in Saudi Arabia was to be handed over today to the Saudi government via the Sri Lankan Embassy in that country.

The housemaid identified as L.P. Ariyawathi of Thihagoda, Matara has undergone a surgery at a local hospital to remove a number of iron nails that had been hammered into her body. The woman was under severe mental stress, local media reported.

The report that includes media reports and a statement from the relevant woman translated into Arabic was handed over to the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Saudi Arabia by the Chairman of Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau Kingsley Ranawaka who is on an official tour to the Kingdom to look into the woes of Sri Lankan employees.

Saudi authorities however, have expressed doubts on the maid's claim questioning how she passed through airport metal detectors at Riyadh and Katunayake with nails in her body.

Airport security experts say the metal scanners at the airports may alert the security officials with the presence of metal which is then normally followed by a personal body inspection by the security personnel who would allow the woman to proceed upon finding nothing externally.