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Ministry plans fewer maids, more skilled labour
By Mahangu Weerasinghe
The Labour and Foreign Employment Ministry, along with the Foreign Employment Bureau will propose a twenty-year plan for the training of Sri Lankans who go abroad for employment. Minister Athauda Seneviratne, addressing Parliament yesterday said the plan envisages increasing the quality of skilled labourers who are channelled abroad.

"We must reduce the number of people who go abroad as housemaids and increase the number of skilled workers such as nurses. I have already spoken to Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva about the training of nurses," he said.

JHU Parliamentarian Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka said the country owed much of its monetary success to the women domestic workers abroad. "Much of the facilities we enjoy are available to us because of the foreign exchange that these workers bring into the country," he said.

"The government urgently needs to train these domestic workers and send them abroad as skilled workers hereafter," said the Ven. Thera. "This is the only way that the identity of Sri Lanka will be protected."

Meanwhile UNP Parliamentarian M.M. Musthafa said the housemaid business will one day have to be stopped. The MP stressed that these very workers should be trained as Juki Operators or nurses before sending them abroad.

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