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What happened
A family from Saudi Arabia including a man, woman and their children hired a live-with domestic helper from Sri Lanka through a hiring agency in Saudi Arabia. After five months, Mrs. L.G.A. returned home to Sri Lanka, where after her arrival it was discovered she had 23 nails and one needle, some as long as 2" throughout her body. According to L.G.A: "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 punishment.I had to work from dawn to dusk. I hardly slept. They beat me and threatened to kill me and hide my body."
Response and intervention
As of September 2010, the satellite news channel CNN reported that Sri Lankan officials in Colombo said Saudi authorities had arrested Mrs. L.G.A's employers, but a Sri Lankan embassy official told Human Rights Watch that the Saudi authorities had not yet informed the Sri Lankan embassy in Riyadh of any steps they had taken to investigate the matter. Mrs. L.G.A. was able to send messages to her family who intervened with the Sri Lankan authorities who assisted the family to bring her back to Sri Lanka. Mrs. L.G.A had to pay for all of her return flight and visa fees and was only compensated for two out of the five months she worked. Mrs. L.G.A. since her arrival back in Sri Lanka has had most of the nails surgically removed from her body at the Kamburipitya Base Hospital in Matara district. Other support and care is unknown. The government of Sri Lanka is supportive with demanding that the Saudi Arabia government arrest and take action against Mrs. L.G.A.'s previous employers. Please see: http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/08/woman-domestic-worker-in-saudi-arabia.html And: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/09/02/saudi-arabia-domestic-worker-brutalized And: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/saudi-family-hammers-23-nails-into-lankan-maids-body-report-47131?cp