Sri Lanka (see also Jordan)
The Foreign Employment Bureau revealed that 18 of the 60 Sri Lankan runaway domestic workers who took refuge at their embassy in Jordan have returned home on 1 June. Initial delays in the repatriation of the distressed domestic workers were largely due to the refusal of some Jordanian employers to pay their employees’ visa charges to return to Sri Lanka. However, the move by the Jordanian government to waive the Rs6 million in fines imposed on the workers as per the request of Labor Relations and Foreign Employment Minister Athauda Seneviratne facilitated the repatriation process. The rest of the domestic workers would be brought home in batches, according to the bureau.
The flow of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees fleeing to India by sea is expected to continue, according to S.C. Chandrahasan, head of an NGO that looks after the welfare of Tamil refugees. According to the activist, the people fear the outbreak of a war and have lost faith in the Sri Lankan government’s ability to protect them from the Sinhalese mobs. As of 4 June, close to 2,500 Sri Lankan refugees, mostly from the eastern district of Trincomalee that has been affected by Sinhalese gang violence, have arrived in Tamil Nadu in India.
Sources: Swarna Wijekone and Nilusha Niranjala, “Eighteen housemaids stranded in Jordan return to Sri Lanka," Daily News, 2 June 2006; IANS, “Lankan Tamils flee by sea to Chennai," Bahrain Tribune, 6 June 2006