Select Committee to probe migrant workers’ travails

A motion by a group of Government and Opposition legislators seeking the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee to look into the difficulties faced by Sri Lankan migrant workers, was approved by Parliament on Wednesday. This motion was brought in the wake of several prominent cases of workers facing serious hardship being highlighted in recent weeks while employed abroad.

The committee is seeking to examine and make recommendations on various aspects affecting the migrant workers with the aim of ensuring foreign employment becomes a dignified service which ensures the safety of the workers.

By the end of last year there were more than 1.4 million Sri Lankans working overseas, most of them in West Asian countries, while the number of persons deported or sent back due to defaulting on their contracts, is reportedly a little over a 1,000 during each of the past five years. However, there are many unreported cases of workers facing difficulties in their places of work.

The latest case where an underage girl who was sent to Saudi Arabia by a job agency on a false birth certificate and is now facing death sentence there for alleged murder, is one such instance. The select committee will look into the workings of the foreign employment agencies in the country and whether the workers seeking employment are given a proper understanding of the kind of work they would have to undertake on reaching the host countries and if they are trained for the kind of work they have to perform.

Other matters to be examined include the possibility of establishing a new unit in Sri Lankan missions in relevant countries to look into the problems of the migrant workers as well as the formulation of a compensation scheme for migrant workers in case of accidents and disasters.

The committee is also seeking to examine if the funds received by the Government on behalf of the migrants workers who returned from Kuwait after the war there in 1990 was spent on the welfare of the returnees or if there was any misuse of funds.

The Motion has been signed by JVP Parliamentarians Vijitha Herath, S.A.Jayantha Samaraweera and Achala Jagoda, Deputy Ministers Sarath Kumara Gunaratne and K. Abdul Baiz and UNP Parliamentarians Jayalath Jayewardene and Joseph Michael Perera. It has been placed on the Order Paper of Parliament but the committee members are yet to be named by the Speaker.