Colombo, Mar 29 (IANS): Sri Lanka will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kuwait to protect the rights of migrant workers in the country, an official said Thursday.

"There are 260,000 Sri Lankans employed in Kuwait, of which 75 percent are female workers," Xinhua quoted cabinet spokesman Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena as saying.

The MoU is similar to those already signed with the governments of United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan on the employment of migrant workers, he said.

According to Sri Lanka's Bureau of Foreign Employment, there were 14,704 complaints in 2010 alone for breach of employment contracts, non-payment of wages, physical and sexual harassment.

Half of Sri Lanka's foreign exchange revenue is earned by migrant workers and a quarter of its total workforce of eight million are working in Middle-east countries.

The majority of them are women and unskilled workers, working as housemaids in oil rich nations.