Australian Court finds Sri Lankan diplomat guilty of labor exploitation

Sri Lankan diplomat Himalee Arunatilaka has been ordered by the Federal Court of Australia to pay back wages to her former housekeeper who worked for three years under conditions “similar to modern slavery.” The Australian court found the employment breached national laws due to the exceptionally low wages and required work hours. 

Unknowingly entered a “slavery-type arrangement” 

The Independent reports that between 2015 to 2018, Arunatilaka served as the deputy high commissioner of Sri Lanka in Canberra, Australia. While there, she employed Priyanka Danaratna to act as her housekeeper while living in Canberra. But over those three years, Danaratna was only paid AUD $11,212 for her work. That’s just three percent of the minimum wage in Australia. In addition, she was never given unpaid breaks, paid overtime or penalty rates, nor paid regularly or with issued pay slips, all breaches of Australia’s Fair Work Act. David Hilliard, Danaratna’s lawyer, says she effectively worked nonstop for three years for around 65 cents an hour.  

Hilliard stated: 

“It’s an example of how modern slavery works, vulnerable employees find themselves trapped in a situation where their lives are nothing but work, in a job they cannot escape.”  

When she was paid, her paltry wages went into a Sri Lankan bank account. This made her funds very difficult to access from Canberra. And on arrival her employer also took her passport – a hallmark of labor exploitation. Danaratna spoke very little English at the time. Without access to money or her passport, she found herself completely isolated. 

Is diplomatic immunity enabling exploitation? 

Danaratna felt she wasn’t being treated properly but it wasn’t until she spoke to her family in Sri Lanka that she realized it might be illegal. Her family advised her to reach out to the local Salvation Army who helped her successfully escape. She told her employers she was going for a short walk around the block, one of the few liberties she had. Two people from the Salvation Army were waiting for her in a car around the corner.

The modern slavery lead for the Salvation Army, Claudia Cummins, says cases like these aren’t uncommon. And recent court cases highlight this can be especially true in diplomatic circles where diplomatic immunity almost seems to enable exploitation.  

Hilliard shared from his experience: 

“They all follow a fairly similar pattern of … people who are extremely isolated within the Australian community, brought here and paid what would be seen by anyone in Australia as really pitiful wages, to work for a senior diplomat in their home.” 

Cummins stated since the opening of the Salvation Army’s modern slavery safe house: 

“We’ve often seen quite a high number of people experiencing what’s known as domestic servitude…being treated like a slave, often in a home environment, in a private home,”  

Both say more work needs to be done by the government to ensure workers aren’t isolated and taken advantage of. If you’re working in a foreign country and your passport is taken away, you become vulnerable to “slave-like arrangements”. This is especially true if your employer is a diplomat and the only place that you can apply to get a new passport is through the very person exploiting you. Freedom United celebrates this legal victory for survivors of modern slavery. We stand beside those who seek justice for any person who has experienced labor exploitation, regardless of where or who has exploited them.