UAE | Employment
Record number of maids recruited from Sri Lanka
Experts in the labour sector were of the opinion that the rise in the demand for Sri Lankan domestic workers has a lot to do with the Dh825 mandatory minimum wages stipulated for them by Colombo early this year.
- By Sunita Menon, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:27 May 5, 2008
Dubai: The recruitment of Sri Lankan domestic workers in the UAE recorded an all time high this year.
"About 886 individual recruitment agreements were attested by the consulate in February and the figure further went up to 998 in March this year. This means the demand for Sri Lankan domestic helpers has gone up this year. It's a record high if we compare the figures in the last five years," said Ahmad Zein, consul labour and welfare at the Sri Lankan consulate in Dubai, yesterday.
Experts in the labour sector were of the opinion that the rise in the demand for Sri Lankan domestic workers has a lot to do with the Dh825 mandatory minimum wages stipulated for them by Colombo early this year. Previously they were paid Dh600.
Huge remittances
There are about 175,000 Sri Lankans in the UAE of which an estimated 55 per cent are employed as housemaids.
Of about 1.5 million Sri Lankans working overseas, a million are women. The country earns about $2.7 billion (about Dh9.9 billion) in foreign remittances by its overseas workers annually.
"The pay scale varies in the Gulf and Middle East countries as it is based on the per capita income in each of these countries. There was some unhappiness aired initially by recruitment agents in the UAE as well as in Sri Lanka who felt that a mandatory pay scale could have an adverse effect on recruitment but so far things are looking good," said Zein.
He said there had been no complaints of harassment registered so far this year by a Sri Lankan domestic helper.
Zein has credited this encouraging trend to the changing outlook of sponsors towards domestic helpers and the training programme by the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment for its nationals heading overseas for employment.
"There are about 1,500 registered recruitment agents in Sri Lanka who have their network spread across the Gulf and Middle East countries. These agents provide the sponsors with agreements to sign if they want to hire domestic helpers."
Minimum wages
Following are the minimum monthly wages for domestic workers in these countries:
The Philippines: Dh1,470 ($400)
India: Dh1,100
Sri Lanka: Dh825
Indonesia: Dh800
Bangladesh: Dh750
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