News
Migrant workers hit with higher health certificate costs
Due to Sri Lanka's economic crisis, many people are lining up to leave the country for employment abroad Pix by Eshan Fernando
The price of a pre-departure expatriate health certificate required by all prospective migrants to West Asia has shot up from Rs 18,000 to Rs 38,000, prompting cries that the licensed medical clinics were financially exploiting workers.
Other costs have also jumped. For instance, the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine that cost between Rs700-900 is now Rs 3,900.
“We have repeatedly brought this to the attention of the authorities but there’s no response,” said M F M Arshad, Secretary of the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA).
The certificates are issued by the Saudi Arabia-based Gulf Health Council (GHC). This pre-departure expatriates’ health check-up is implemented in any country from which expatriates travel to West Asian nations for employment or residence. There are 14 clinics in Sri Lanka authorised to conduct these tests.
“There’s been a sharp price increase over the last two months alone,” said Mr Arshad. This was a huge burden on migrant workers, especially under the current circumstances. “We have appealed to the owners and even the authorities but they keep giving reasons which we don’t think are fair,” he maintained.
Migrant workers must also stick to the clinics assigned to them. This could require them to travel long distances, past places that were closer to home. The medical certificate “mafia” had political support which is why they had managed to evade regulation even by the Consumer Affairs Authority, Mr Arshad claimed.
The clinics insisted, however, that pricing was reasonable and attributed the sudden increases to the exchange rate and economic situation.
“Almost 100 percent of the consumables used in medical settings are imported and medical centres have to pay an annual membership fee and other levies during the year to the GHC and these are all priced in US dollars,” said a spokesperson for Medi Trust, one of the clinics in Colombo, on behalf of the nine clinics in Colombo.
The average price per certificate hovered in the range of US$ 80 over the last few years in the South East Asia region. The collective also claimed that the LKR equivalent of this was Rs 28,000 which is how much the certificate actually cost.
“While the pricing has moved up gradually, there were tremendous shocks to the supply chain, the VAT increase being the most recent, which we are yet to even quantify,” the statement read. Most of the time, the pre-departure medical certificate fee is borne by the relevant sponsor of the GCC state, and the dollars needed for this are made available to the candidate as part of the recruitment fee, the clinic owners say.
The assignment of candidates to specified clinics was done in order to prevent monopolies. An electronic system will randomly distribute candidates to achieve equal allocation among approved centres to “ensure that there is no collusion or undue advantages and influences on the accredited medical centres, thus ensuring the highest standard of medical screening preventing unfit candidates arriving for employment in the GCC States”.
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