JEDDAH — Sri Lanka Consul General Dr. Adambawa Uthumalebbe thanked the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and the Saudi government for the amnesty and its extension that helped a large number of his community members to rectify their residency and labor status. "We have completed about 99 percent of paper works of correction process. If the fingerprinting and final exit procedures at the Deportation Center (Tarheel) are done properly, we hope that every Sri Lankan national would be able to finish the entire process of correcting status or leaving the Kingdom for their homeland for good two months before the November 3 deadline," he said. In an exclusive interview with Saudi Gazette, Uthumalebbe welcomed the recent Cabinet decision to approve new regulations for domestic workers, saying "this is a very good step. Everyone is very happy with the new regulations." Referring to the overall performance of the consulate in the first phase of the amnesty period, the diplomat claimed that they have accomplished an incredible task by issuing temporary travel documents (TTD) for all applicants. "We had received a total of 9,667 applications for TTD and these included 7,262 men and 2,405 women. There were a total of 2,300 applications for temporary passports, of which I,975 passports were issued by the end of June. "For the second phase, we have prepared a systematic and comprehensive program to tackle the cases in the best way possible. We categorized people on the basis of their status. People with Iqama is one category and those without any documents is another category. On July 8, we issued tokens for 300 men who have Iqamas for fingerprinting, while on July 15 we issued tokens for 250 women with Iqamas. "In Ramadan, every Monday, we issue 300 or 250 tokens. After Ramadan, every week 400 - 450 people are expected to be sent for fingerprinting. "On the first Monday of Ramadan, they asked for original Iqama or passport but half of them did not have it because they are runaway (Huroob). "Thus, only 150 people had their fingerprinting. On July 15, we sent the remaining people, and among them 175 fingerprinted." The consul general attributed tardiness at Tarheel and the insufficiency of manpower and equipment. "We don't know how the Tarheel officials are going to address this problem if this backlog remains. All arrangements at consulate are smooth and going well. "But things are stuck at Tarheel. On our part everything is fine. One day we receive applications for TTD and the very next day we issue it. "Senior government officials came from Sri Lanka to oversee the situation. Even without any volunteers, we managed things very well, thanks to the full cooperation and active participation of the consulate staff." Uthumalebbe said that there are 250,000 Sri Lankan nationals working in the Western Province. "Our outstations are also working well and are fully geared up to do the correction process. In the beginning of the first amnesty period, many people from the central and eastern provinces came here and got fingerprinted. "After the first two weeks, Tarheel officials have stopped it, and restricted to only those from Jeddah and the neighboring regions." The consul general said that the consulate issued 2,000 temporary passports in order to enable people to take up jobs with new sponsors. "In the beginning, the authorities refused to accept it but then we issued a separate letter for attaching with the passport. So far, we have not received any complaints from these people about rejecting this. We presume that this worked well. Even though we did not hold any job fairs, many company representatives came to the consulate in search of manpower — mainly seeking for labors." He said that the amnesty-related preoccupation of authorities affected the routine jail visits of the consulate officials. "At present, we are not getting permission from the authorities. We requested the Ministry of Foreign for the approval for jail visits but they are now not giving permission because of their busy engagements," he said. On the Haj preparations, Uthumalebbe said that, unlike many other countries, including those from the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lankan consulate's role is very limited with regard to serving Haj pilgrims. This is mainly because of the comparatively lower number of pilgrims and that the Haj tour operation is managed by the private sector. The allotted quota for Sri Lanka is only 2,240 pilgrims. Muslim Cultural Department divides these Hajis among the licensed operators. The government facilitate the required facilities for them. "Our duty is only to oversee them and prevent any exploitations. The Consulate staff handles it very well," he said. Commending the new regulations to govern domestic workers in the Kingdom, Uthumalebbe said that this would have far reaching positive results. He also noted that Sri Lankan government is not encouraging people to come to work as domestic help. "Colombo is very keen to ensure better living conditions and allowances for domestic staff, and that resulted in fixing the minimum salary for domestic workers at SR900." M.B.M. Zarook, first secretary and head of Labor Section at the consulate, said that the Sri Lankan government is closely observing whether the worker is in dire need of going abroad to take up a job. All aspects related with the housekeeper are minutely checking. The district secretariat is assessing each worker's family background, income level, and all related matters. The government is fully aware of the fact there are mafias who make lucrative business out of human trafficking, and therefore it is extremely vigilant to save the aspiring domestic keepers from exploitation."
