Financial Times

False promises to migrant workers
The Labour Minister travelled to Jordan and signed a pact to protect workers; he is heading another delegation to the Gulf to discuss better facilities for migrant workers.

Haven’t we heard this before? A case of déjà vu, perhaps! Ministers Athauda Seneviratne and Rohitha Abeygunawardene, also handing the subject of migrant workers are making sweeping statements about caring for those overseas. Will they match their words with deeds or resort to short term initiatives to score points to boost their own future, as many others in the past have done?

How often have we heard this: "In an effort to seek a permanent solution to numerous employment problems and various other hardships faced by Sri Lankan migrant workers during their short stint abroad, a high level Labour Department delegation will be visiting the Gulf….?”

Trips and agreements are on the cards. It doesn’t matter whether these are effective or not. What matters is travelling and signing documents and crowing about it later. What happened to the special lounge for migrant workers at the airport? Why spend millions on it, only to remove it later?

Last week Seneviratne signed an agreement with his Jordanian labour counterpart which included an insurance deal to protect our workers. It is rumoured that the minister’s son was behind the deal.

For nearly three decades, governments have praised our workers and the foreign exchange they bring to this country. But have their lives improved? Delegations go, delegations return, ministers go, ministers return followed by a lot of talk later about what they plan to do. Has that helped the case of the migrant worker? A Sunday Times journalist who visited several countries in the Gulf in the past two years – on two separate fact-finding trips -- found that there is a lot that needs to be done to help our workers despite all the “wonderful” things the authorities have done or claim to have done. In Kuwait, several employment agencies are managed by former Sri Lankan housemaids who themselves harass and beat workers who run away from difficult employers.

The government must certainly be aware of this through the embassy there.
Ministers espouse the virtues of these wonderful workers and their contribution to the economy but what have they done to counter the social breakdown in homes, incest in homes, fathers breaking away, hard earned money being withered away? There was some research and study on this problem during former President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s tenure but the proposed solutions never got off the ground.

Counselling of migrant worker families --that's one area the government has failed while another is a proper briefing before workers fly away.
There is no doubt that in most cases the money earned by these hard working Sri Lankan women is no compensation for the impact it leaves on their families.
The media often report on problems like suicides, harassment, sexual abuse, etc at the other end often due to ignorance of workers to understand the language, ill-equipped to tackle alien customs and sophisticated household equipment.

This newspaper has repeatedly highlighted the need for counseling, more NGO-like help or support groups in labour receiving countries to help these migrants.
There are areas that our authorities cannot simply help and should rely on help groups. Sri Lankans in Bahrain are pleading for a proper consulate instead of a Sri Lankan worker who doubles up as honorary consul.

The social fallout from migration can be disastrous to the country. Potential migrant workers must be provided all information and then asked to make their choices.

The sooner the government recognizes these facts, the better it is.
Until then these delegations and talk of a better future for migrant workers are meaningless.

The priority now is to launch a research study and survey by experts – not ministers or officials – through visiting those countries, assessing the situation on the ground and combining data at this end and reporting on the best way to ease the problems of migrant workers.

What is needed right now is correct information about their plight, their needs and the impact on families back home.

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