Sri Lanka committed to bring together labour-sending countries to deal with common issues
View(s):Sri Lanka which recently assumed the Chairmanship of the Colombo Process – the Regional Consultative Process on migration, will do its best to share its experience and bring together the 11 countries and nine observer countries of this group to address common interests.
Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare Minister Dilan Perera, speaking at the 103rd Session of the Council of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva late last month, said these interests include mismatches between supply and demand and applying ethical concepts to foreign employment management.
In a media release issued by the Sri Lanka mission in Geneva, the minister was quoted as saying that the IOM has been a pillar of strength supporting Sri Lanka’s efforts to give migrant workers employment with dignity.
Noting that the bulk of migrant workers fall under the unskilled categories, the Minister said through committed efforts over the years, this has been reduced to 40 per cent today from 52 per cent in 2010. Efforts are underway to reduce this number to 25 per cent. The successful attainment of this goal is being underpinned by enhancing the skills of the female migrant workers and not by placing barriers on them, he added.
Action has been taken to make all migrant workers obtain at least a NVQ3 (National Vocational Qualification 3) certificate, which is internationally recognized and portable. This means, migrant workers, specially females, will be re-skilled to obtain higher level employment such as housekeeping assistants, caregivers, nurse aids, etc., thereby considerably strengthening their position in the power relationship with the employer.
Minister Perera added that Sri Lanka has adopted a holistic approach towards migrant workers, and considered them primarily as human beings and secondarily as income generators. Programmes have been devised to educate labour agents in managerial programmes.
Furthermore, Sri Lanka has built a raft of welfare measures, like scholarships for migrant workers children etc.
At a separate event hosted by Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ravinatha Aryasinha, and attended by the Director General of IOM and senior staff and the Permanent Representatives and experts of the Colombo Process countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, Minister Perera presented a Concept Paper outlining the agenda Sri Lanka proposed to embark on during its stewardship of the Colombo Process over the next two years.