News
Passport crisis may cripple labour migration
View(s):- SLBFE warns Sri Lankans may lose overseas jobs
By Namini Wijedasa
With no orders still placed for a fresh consignment of passports beyond the 750,000 now being issued to the people, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) has warned that the continuing crisis threatens to cripple labour migration.
An influx of applications is expected in the coming weeks as candidates wishing to take the Korean language proficiency test must furnish passport numbers to qualify to sit. Around 30,000 travel documents are usually required to meet the demand of just this category of migrant hopefuls.
Separately, foreign employment agents are urging the SLBFE to intervene in guaranteeing an uninterrupted flow of passports to their clients, cautioning that repeated failure to fulfil requests for Sri Lankan workers will soon see receiving countries turn to other markets.
A meeting was held with Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala, SLBFE, and other relevant officials. However, no firm solution was provided beyond another discussion being promised.
Minister Wijepala, who is in charge of the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE), was not available for comment yesterday despite repeated attempts to contact him. However, SLBFE Chairman Koshala Wickramasinghe confirmed that issues related to passports were urgently raised at a meeting last week.
When it had been suggested that an order be placed for a new consignment of travel documents, the minister had outlined the impediments to doing so, including an ongoing case in the Court of Appeal challenging the DIE’s bungled ePassport tender, an authoritative source said. “But tender and system issues are not within the SLBFE’s scope,” he pointed out.
Asked to forecast how many passports their sector would need, the SLBFE had provided the statistics, Mr. Wickramasinghe said. It was then explored at the discussion whether a daily quota could be set aside for labour migrants and also whether foreign employment agents could be allocated a certain number of passports. This would mean, however, that other categories of applicants would be deprived.
“The agencies are really pushing us not to disturb the employment schedules,” said Mr. Wickramasinghe. “They have reminded us that if we do not get passports on time, the employer will find alternative countries. The timeline is tight, and it will be difficult to maintain the SLBFE’s future plans (if a solution is not found).”
The SLBFE’s target is to send around 340,000 workers this year, up from 312,000 registered migrants last year. Foreign remittances are crucial to maintaining economic stability. “The minister agreed to a progress meeting next week,” Mr. Wickramasinghe said.
The current batch of 750,000 passports is due to run out between July and September this year, depending on the daily issuance rate. The Public Security Ministry has appointed an expert committee to propose how best to replenish stocks. But a new order has not been placed.
“Even to get stocks from the existing supplier, a request must be made at least by mid-January so that production lines can be freed up,” an informed DIE source said. “This has not been done.”
The outcome of the last tender for ePassports—awarded to Thales DIS Finland OY and its Sri Lankan partner, Just In Time (JIT) Technologies (Pvt) Ltd—is before the Appeal Court, challenged by losing bidder Epic Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
The DIE is currently using up the “emergency” batch of machine-readable passports (MRPs) bought as a stopgap measure (with Appeal Court sanction) to solve an unprecedented shortage of travel documents arising from the mismanaged ePassport tender. The consignment of 750,000 is arriving in installments from Thales.
There is a backlog of more than 100,000 passport applications in addition to requests. Daily issuance is controlled at around 2,000, with one-day service being the bulk of it.
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