Former Sri Lankan diplomat in Australia fined more than $100,000 for ‘entrapping’ domestic worker

Himalee Arunatilaka served as Sri Lanka’s deputy high commissioner to Australia from 2015 to 2018, during which she paid a domestic worker less than 65 cents an hour. Photograph: Jean Marc Ferré

A diplomat who “entrapped” a domestic worker in her Canberra home, forcing her to work 14 hours, seven days a week, for less than a dollar an hour, has been fined more than $100,000 in the federal court.

The fine is in addition to more than $500,000 in unpaid wages and interest she has already been ordered to restore, but has so far refused to pay.