The housemaids who returned to the island yesterday said that even though they took up jobs in the Middle East via local registered job agencies, they were tortured and intimidated instead of receiving salaries. They revealed that they had to serve as housemaids in many houses within several years.

One woman of the group who returned to the island said she had to come on a wheel chair as she was forced to get on to a ladder and allowed to fall down from it.

The Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva who just returned after visiting Saudi Arabia said the unscrupulous Sri Lankan foreign employment agencies are responsible for the plight of the poor housemaids and vowed to crush the foreign employment "mafia".