CAIRO: A Saudi Arabian newspaper reported that a Sri Lankan house cleaner was treated at a local hospital after her employer, a Saudi citizen, hammered 23 nails into her body. Arab News reported the situation on Wednesday morning. “I had to work continuously since I had to do the chores of all the occupants and when I wanted to take rest due to tiredness, they inserted the nail in my body as a punishment,” the 50-year old woman told a Sri Lankan television station. The woman, who has returned to Colombo since leaving the hospital, said she was overworked, threatened with death, and beaten. The Sri Lankan embassy in Riyadh said it was looking into the case. The situation of workers in Saudi Arabia has come under much scrutiny in recent years, even by other Arab countries, notably Egypt, where complaints over the poor treatment of Egyptian workers in the Gulf Kingdom have left concerns over the rising violence and ill-treatment directed at employees. Most of the house cleaners in the Gulf are from South Asia and their situation has been detailed by human rights groups, who have demanded better treatment given to them. BM
