FEB off-loading workers at BIA

Friday, 16 July 2021 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

I write to protest at the unfettered power enjoyed by staff of the Foreign Employment Bureau (FEB) at Bandaranaike International Airport.

It is incomprehensible how ordinary clerks can prevent a person from travelling overseas on employment, simply because of not being registered with them.

More astonishing is the fact that they have absolutely no solution to circumvent such trivial problems except for the passenger to return home and start over.

It is beyond comprehension how someone could be prevented from boarding one’s flight to a career because of a bureaucratic requirement. It is nothing short of demanding ‘kappam’ from hapless citizens. Many of them pawn jewellery or borrow money to finance this first step of an adventure to a perceived rosy future.

The Bureau does absolutely nothing in the process of securing the job. All the hard work has to be done by the aspirant. But at the airport, the FEB hover like vultures to swoop down for their share of the booty. Moreover, they are empowered by the Government to do so. It is high time that the whole process be revamped and reasoned out.

My son who was travelling to the Maldives to take up a lucrative job in a prestigious hotel, was stopped by the minions of the FEB. It then transpired that the employer had failed to register their recruit with the SL High Commission in Male. In spite of the pleading and cajoling, the FEB couldn’t offer any recourse to such an oversight simply because there wasn’t any. It was just a ‘No’! What an unfair barter: no registration – no job. So whither the kudos showered on the so-called ‘Rata viruvo’?

The registration process is how the FEB kept track of workers to slap them with fees of about Rs. 18,000. The fees are renewable every two years and the worker is liable to pay again if a job is changed; even within the same country! What a racket.

My son had been languishing at home for about three months, thanks to COVID, waiting for his Maldivian work permit and during this time the FEB ignored him, like they do other returnees. This in spite of fees paid for earlier jobs held there. For what reason they collect these fees, other than shylocking, is a reasonable question.

The laws pertaining to income tax are understandable but the FEB fee requirement is beyond comprehension, it smacks of extortion.

The Government should take steps to remove the anomalies and shortcomings in the FEB. Right now, it is simply a convenient employment agency that produces nothing.

M.R. Azeez