Sri Lanka responds to Australian court order against diplomat

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it’s attention has been drawn to the recent media reports regarding a judgement given by the Australian Federal Court in a case against the former Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in Canberra.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said that it is the standard practice that diplomats are facilitated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take domestic assistants to assist their official representational duties, adding that the domestic assistant in question served a full three-year term, and on the eve of the employer’s originally intended departure from Australia, absconded the residence of the employer.

The allowance approved by the Ministry as the salary of the employee has been paid to her, the statement mentioned, highlighting that the Ministry is satisfied that the said salary was paid to the domestic assistant by the employer as mutually agreed.

On Thursday (15), Australian media reported that a Federal Court judge had slammed the Home Affairs Department of Australia for failing to properly scrutinise a Sri Lankan diplomat who confiscated a staffer’s passport and gave her just two days leave in three years.

Accordingly, Sri Lanka’s former deputy high commissioner to Australia had been ordered to pay $543,000 in unpaid wages and interest to a domestic worker and faced a large fine for breaches of employment laws.

Himalee Arunatilaka, who served in Canberra from 2015 to 2018, denied her employee, Priyanka Danaratna, minimum pay and conditions during time in Australia, the court found.

Justice Elizabeth Raper found Ms Danaratna worked from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week and was only allowed two days off in that time after she burnt her hand with cooking oil.

Over the period, she was paid just $11,200 – around 75¢ an hour – which was sent to Sri Lanka. Ms Danaratna also was denied permission to leave the Canberra residence alone, and had her passport confiscated.

In addition to handing down a damning judgment for Ms Arunatilaka, Justice Raper suggested that if the Home Affairs Department had taken a closer look, “Ms Danaratna’s employment may have been very different”.

The Australian Federal Court last year ordered India’s high commissioner between 2015 and 2016 Navdeep Suri Singh to pay $189,000 in unpaid wages and interest to Seema Shergill, who was found to be working in “slave-like” conditions in the chief diplomat’s residence.

Justice Raper also ordered Mr Suri to pay a $97,200 fine for wage theft, the maximum amount allowed.

Ms Arunatilaka was in 2023 appointed Sri Lanka’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

--With Agencies Inputs