Sri Lankans to be flown home

A group of Sri Lankan labourers who tried to kill themselves after months of begging for food and shelter when their employer went out of business will each be given $3,000 (Dh11,000) and flown home for free, the Iraqi government said earlier this month. Despairing because they hadn't been paid, ten of the Sri Lankans climbed a building in Iraq's southern Maysan province and threatened to hang themselves in May before local officials intervened and promised to help. The Sri Lankans are among about 6,000 foreign workers in Iraq, most of whom live in meagre conditions, get little pay and cannot afford to buy plane tickets to leave. But with about 900,000 unemployed Iraqis, the government has been looking at ways to send foreign workers home to free up jobs for citizens. In a statement on Wednesday, government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh said the workers would be paid and flown back to Sri Lanka, which they left in 2009 to take construction jobs in Maysan.