Chinese workers recalled after attacks
As a crippling effect of the recent bombings and racial attacks, Chinese companies involved in as much as 40 per cent of construction in the country, have recalled some of their key staff while most other blue collar workers don’t turn up for work, industry officials say.
Supervisors and top management including engineers, etc were immediately recalled by the main Chinese companies after the bomb attacks last month, an industry official told the Business Times. Another official noted that most construction sites operated by Chinese firms are not running smoothly at present.
“This is mainly because the companies were perturbed by the bomb attacks. Also blue collar workers were scared to come to the sites during the aftermath of the Easter bombings,” the first official noted. He said the work that was started after April also waned due to the recent racist attacks. Officials added these stoppages will impact on a macro level in the coming months. “The impact won’t be great as the companies will find a way to resume their operations but what happened is not a good signal at all,” the second official added.
Last year, more than 12,000 Chinese were employed, as per the Immigration and Emigration Control Department. It issued 6,229 resident visas to Chinese workers, 1,012 visas for Chinese working in BOI projects, 2,031 work visas for Chinese working on private sector projects and 3,068 work visas for Chinese in state sector projects last year. Some 2,000 Chinese alone work at a construction site opposite Galle Face Green.
Chinese-funded investment and infrastructure have been pouring into Sri Lanka in the past decade when mega project business was dished out to four Chinese companies and seven Indian companies, with over 30,000 semi-skilled and unskilled Chinese workers in the country at the time.