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.