Probe launched over teenage girl sent to Middle East as domestic worker

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has launched investigations into an incident of a Sri Lankan teenage girl being sent as a domestic work to the Middle East.

Owing the issues that had arisen while she had been employed as a house maid in the Middle East, the girl in question was sheltered at the Detention Center of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Oman, and later sent back to Sri Lanka.

Although the girl claims to have been born in 2000, the doctors who had conducted the medical examination on her, claimed that her actual age could be either 17 or 18 years.

It was uncovered that she had been residing in Kinniya, Trincomalee, and initially sent over to Saudi Arabia for domestic employment when she was nearly 10 years old, under a fake identity using the name Abdul Mohamed.

Following the information received by the CID officers attached to the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), the girl had been taken into custody upon arrival in the country on September 19.

Reportedly, the same agency that had sent Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan girl who was executed in Saudi Arabia in 2013 at the age of 17 while serving as a domestic worker, had employed this young girl in Saudi Arabia using fake documents.

One employ of this agency is currently in police custody in connections with the incident.

Further investigations regarding the incident are being carried out by the CID.