The Sri Lankan cabinet has approved a migrant worker agreement with Saudi Arabia which aims to improve and safeguard the rights of about 500,000 expats in the Gulf kingdom.
The proposed agreement on domestic worker recruitment between Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia includes stipulations on payment and holidays, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
Currently about 500,000 Sri Lankans are employed in Saudi Arabia and 60 percent of them are women, it said.
The proposed agreement follows a similar deal agreed with the Philippines.
Under the proposals, Saudi employers will open a bank account for workers and will deposit salaries directly into the account.
Migrant workers will also be entitled to 30 days paid vacation in Sri Lanka at the end of two years of service, the report said.
It quoted Sri Lanka’s cabinet spokesman and media minister Keheliya Rambukwella as saying: “Under this agreement the passport of the worker will remain with the worker. We felt this was very important as there are many complaints that people are being held hostage because they do not have a passport to return home.”
It is unclear when the Sri Lankan government will enter into the new agreement but Rambukwella said it would be “soon”.
India is also about to close a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia along the same lines.
The agreement comes a year after a Sri Lankan female domestic worker was beheaded in Saudi Arabia for a crime she was convicted of when she was a minor.
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