S'pore decides to recruit Sri Lankan housemaids
S'pore decides to recruit Sri Lankan housemaids
COLOMBO (AFP): Singapore has stepped up a drive to recruit
thousands of Sri Lankan maids following Manila's decision to
downgrade ties with Singapore over the hanging of a Filipina
maid, officials said yesterday.
Chua Kim Seng, the head of Singapore's Foreign Maids
Employment Agencies Association (FMEAA) is currently here
together with 59 representatives of job agencies under a program
to recruit 10,000 Sri Lankan maids this year.
Seng said that the mass recruitment was planned in January
itself but a diplomatic row between Singapore and Manila
following Singapore's execution of a Filipina maid for murder in
March has made them accelerate the process.
"Not only in Sri Lanka, but we will also look for house-
keepers in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, and other Asian
countries," Seng said, adding that Singapore now wanted a fair
distribution of workers from several countries.
"The bulk of the workers in Singapore are from the
Philippines. We don't want to be dependent on one nation," Seng
said, referring to some 50,000 Filipinos employed in Singapore.
At present there are 10,000 Sri Lankans in Singapore.
He said that Manila's decision to discourage its nationals
from working in Singapore would hurt the Philippines because the
remittances sent home by each worker provided for the upkeep of
at least six Filipinos.
"Manila will not gain if it continues this policy of keeping
out its workers from Singapore," Seng said.
The arrival of Singapore's job agents in Sri Lanka has
prompted thousands of women to rush to government-run recruitment
centers in the hope of seeking employment in the Southeast Asian
nation, officials said.
"There has been a tremendous response. We had discussions on
this with the government of Sri Lanka as early as January. We
recruited about 420 women in February. Now we expect to take
about 1,500 more," Seng said.
Labor officials here said that attractive terms of employment
coupled with the guaranteed security of the workers is a main
reason for the job rush to Singapore. A maid can earn a minimum
monthly salary of S$225 (US$160).
"Maybe all these reports from the Middle East, about
harassment and abuse of our workers, has now made the girls
prefer Singapore," said Jagath Gunewardene, the general manager
of the government-run Foreign Employment Bureau (FEB) here.
Following last month's fact-finding visit to the Middle East,
Labor Minister Mahinda Rajapakse confirmed that several Sri
Lankan housemaids had been subjected to abuse, sexual assault and
harassment by their Arab employers.
The recent execution of a Sri Lankan maid in the United Arab
Emirates for the murder of her employer's daughter, led to media
speculation here that the maid may have been driven to murder
after undergoing months of physical abuse.