Lawyers, civil society activists and others supporting the rights of migrant workers recently met in Colombo and formed a ‘Lawyers Support Group for Migrant Workers.’

The objectives of the new group are to help migrant workers in distress and provide free legal advice in and outside the legal framework. The group has held two meetings so far and plans to take up some issues concerning migrant workers in courts and seek legal remedies to their problems, a spokesperson for the group said.

There are more than a million Sri Lankan working overseas mainly in the Middle East and some of the biggest issues they face are in the work contracts, not being paid the contracted wage or being duped by agents in signing contracts they don’t understand.