QATARSUCKS and the world needs to know!

Sri Lanka will cut the number of maids it sends to the Middle East, a labor official said, citing increased complaints of abuse by women migrant workers.

"We want to reduce the number of women migrant workers mainly because of complaints we received from those in Middle East countries," Kingsley Ranawaka, the chairman of Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait have been the main markets for over 700,000 Sri Lankan maids who have increasingly complained of rights abuses.

The Sri Lankan Embassy here is pressing Colombo to fix a minimum monthly salary of QR600 for unskilled Sri Lankan workers being hired by cleaning companies in Qatar as janitors.

A senior mission official told The Peninsula yesterday that the cleaning companies here are notorious for paying low salaries to their employees.

A Sri Lankan janitor is on an average paid QR400 a month which is a pittance considering the escalating prices, especially of foodstuff and clothing, said Cryshantha Herath, Labor Attaché at the Sri Lankan Embassy.