Don't send children as domestics - S. Kanapathiraja

by P. Rajaratnam in Nuwara Eliya

Vice President of the Ceylon Workers' Alliance S. Kanapathiraja alerted estate workers not to send their children as domestic servants and let them become victims of all sorts of abuses and violence.

Kanapathiraja was speaking at the funerals of the two young girls whose bodies were found in a canal at Baudhaloka Mawatha, Colombo. The two victims who were from Maskeliya were working as domestic servants at a house in Colombo.

Making his speech amidst the large gathering Kanapathiraja said that he has brought the issue to the notice of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

"The estate workers should protect their children by not sending them as domestic servants. The innocent estate children are treated brutally and made to labour in pathetic conditions.

"Therefore the estate workers should not send their children as servants to overcome their poverty and financial difficulties," he said.

He also pointed out that there were several middlemen and brokers who are involved in misleading the innocent estate youngsters.