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Yuan Shao
Guest
Metal Nails Removed From Tortured Maid
1:39pm UK, Monday August 30, 2010
Andy Jack
Surgeons have removed 16 nails which were hammered into the legs, hands and forehead of a housemaid when she complained her employers were working her too hard.
Sri Lankan L T Ariyawathi had gone to Saudi Arabia to find work last year. After five months in the country, the mother of three returned home deeply traumatised and unable to tell anyone what had happened.
Her family had no idea she had been tortured until they took her to see a doctor when she complained she was in pain. A Sri Lankan Foreign Employment Bureau official said: "The landlord and the wife of the landlord hammered 24 nails into her when she complained of the heavy workload."
X-rays show how the nails were embedded in the body
Ms Ariyawathi said the nails were hammered in after they had been heated by her employer's wife. X-rays showed one to two-inch nails in her hands and legs, and even one over her eyes. The doctor who treated 49-year-old Ms Ariyawathi said there appeared to be no damage to her internal organs. "She is in good condition, she's pain-free and she's very happy," she said.
Housemaid LT Ariyawathi was too traumatised to relate her ordeal
Eight smaller, needle-like nails were left in place because their removal risked causing nerve damage. Sri Lanka's external affairs ministry has said it is taking up the matter with the Saudi government. Around 1.8 million Sri Lankans are employed abroad, of whom 70% are women. Most work as housemaids in the Middle East, while smaller numbers work in Singapore and Hong Kong.
