Scams, poverty and SL child workers abroad

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) and the Foreign Employment Bureau (FEB) will be taking immediate measures to prevent the sending of underaged children for employment abroad. The ploy to send under-aged children as domestic workers abroad has been effected by the use of forged documents.

“Some children have received passports without ever having visited the passport office. We need to find the persons involved and take immediate legal action against them. Among those involved in the scam are sub-agents and several government officers” said NCPA Chairman Jagath Wellawatte.

He claimed birth certificates and NIC’s of the children had been forged and passports issued on the same day. Mr. Wellawatte said following the discovery of an attempt to send six under-aged female children between the ages of 13 and17 years and the deportation of one child, the two institutions would pay immediate attention to the issue.

“Last week one child was deported to Sri Lanka from Jordan. Four children were identified at an FEB training centre at Pannipitiya, while the two others were discovered at a medical check up. All the children had forged documents” he said.

Mr. Wellawatte said most of the children were from the Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts. He added sub-agents charged both the families as well as the agents and said the NCPA was inquiring into the activities of the agencies. “Many children have been sent abroad with forged documents, if proper action is not taken, there will be many cases like Rizana’s. Parents send young children in order to alleviate their poverty but it’s impossible for children to perform the duties of housemaids” he said.

The NCPA planned establishing village level committees in the areas concerned to create awareness, be alerted whenever this kind of incident occurred and to identify cases. The FEB has warned those in charge of training centres to be more concerned and check on the age of trainees. Failure to do this would lead to action being taken against them.

Kingsley Ranawaka, Chairman of the Foreign Employment Bureau said it was difficult to identify the age of job applicants especially as they possessed proper documentation. He said it was up to the Immigration Department to ensure the authenticity of applicants. He added the Bureau was dissuading the sending of housemaids and encouraging skilled and semi-skilled males to work abroad”