Media raises concerns on inefficiencies of foreign employment authorities

Text and pix by Harsha Udayakantha Peiris

With the objective of familiarising the concept of migration for safer and legal foreign employment, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) organised a special awareness workshop for print and electronic media personnel on the theme ‘Coordination through Media and Civil Society Organisations via the Migrant Resource Centre’.

The workshop was held on 22 May 2011 at the Mahaweli Reach Hotel in Kandy. The programme also aimed at the ‘Regional Programme and Dialogue on Facilitating Safe and Legal Migration from South Asia to EU’. It was followed by a one-day regional awareness programme for the public and potential migrant workers.

Innovative programme

IOM, in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), organised and launched this innovative programme for the migrant workers, their family members and overseas employment expectants, in view of offering them a wider and firsthand service on legal migration for foreign employment through migrant resource centres to be established islandwide.

The programme also addresses concerns of migration for safer and legal foreign employment, offering relevant training for the migrant workers and formalising all channelled services through the Central Migrant Resource Centre that will be established in Colombo.

“The awareness raising programme for the public in this regard has identified two categories of potential migrant workers and these include the persons who want to leave for foreign employment in the future and those who are already receiving the training and orientation programme through SLBFE for foreign employment,” said Nishantha Mallawarachchi, Senior Programme Coordinator of the IOM.

The organisation is in the process of establishing 10 regional resource centres islandwide, which would be handled by a Central Migrant Resource Centre to be established in Colombo. “These resource centres will be one-stop facilities for obtaining relevant information, services, networking of migrant workers, organisations, institutions as well as the SLBFE,” he added.

IOM acts together with its partners in the international community to uphold the human dignity and wellbeing of migrants, encourage social and economic development through migration, assist in meeting the growing operational challenges of migration management and advance understanding of migration issues.

Being an inter-governmental organisation that deals with entire migration issues, IOM currently has 120 member states and 89 observer states. The organisation is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. Although it is an affiliated body to the United Nations, it does not hold direct partnership with the UN.

South Asia a vital partner

South Asia, with its young reserve of skilled and labour in search of employment opportunities, is a vital partner to the EU which is expected to face in future years an estimated 20 million shortfall in the working age population.

Given this deficit, the potential overall economic growth and competitiveness of EU enterprises is at risk. While at present only a small share of the migration from South Asia is directed to the EU, a significant rise is to be witnessed, transforming rapidly in response to greater intraregional mobility facilitated by the expansion of the European Union.

At present, Sri Lanka has become one of the major countries that send citizens for foreign employment and according to the reports by the SLBFE, nearly 250,000 locals annually leave the country for foreign employment.

The specific objective of this IOM initiative in this regard therefore is to strengthen national and interregional efforts to reduce irregular migration and facilitate legal migration from South Asia that includes Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh to destination countries such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy and Romania of the Europe through capacity enhancement of origin states, implementation of information campaign and building and sharing of knowledge through interregional dialogue on the theme of labour migration and its development impact.

Objectives and activities

The project has three overall objectives all of which are interrelated and mutually dependable, and are aimed towards achieving managed migration from South Asia to destination countries, in particular within the European Union.

They are to reduce irregular migration and facilitate safe and legal migration from South Asia to destination countries including EU member states as well as to foster regional dialogue and cooperation among South Asian and European governments on the management of labour migration and its development impact.

The project activities include establishment of Migrant Resource Centres (MRCs) in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, information campaigns in the target countries of South Asia and Europe, a regional job fair to be held in India and the Asia-EU dialogue to be held in Brussels in 2011, national assessments on recruitment monitoring mechanism and grievance redressal, mechanisms with national workshops in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, regional study on best practices for recruitment monitoring mechanisms and workshops for the employers in the EU, capacity building of Labour Market Research Unit in Bangladesh, study on circular migration from India to the EU, code of conduct and workshops for recruitment agencies, workshops to sensitise media and NGOs, re-departure orientation workshops for migrants, documentary on safe migration to promote skills available in Bangladesh to the EU, documentary to raise awareness about safe migration for potential migrants and their families and websites for the Colombo Process and the Market Research Unit in Bangladesh.

Migrant Resource Centres

Mallawarachchi also pointed out that the Migrant Resource Centres established under the project would initially be established within the current training institutes or the district offices of the SLBFE and the sustainability of the programme would be assured through a well-geared process that would also be run through the contribution of affiliated civil organisations.

The programme will also raise concern of the public assistance through civil organisations to terminate illegal migration, via providing reliable information to the authorities on illegal migrations and bogus agencies that shelter illegal migration.

Although concerns were raised on maintaining a comprehensive database on Sri Lankan migrants living and working abroad, several media personnel at the discussions stressed the failure of the authorities to work on preparing a detailed database of Sri Lankans abroad.

The inefficiency of relevant public institutions in providing a reliable, urgent and productive service for Sri Lankan migrants and the corruption practiced at the airport and the local embassies overseas were also discussed.

Journalists present at the discussions pointed out that no proper action had been taken yet to permanently ban illegal migration and such foreign employment agencies functioning in the country.

Although a MoU had been reached between the IOM and the SLBFE to carry out the implementation of Migrant Resource Centres islandwide, the absence of the SLBFE representation at the workshop was highly criticised at the discussions.

The programme was equally commended by the media for inviting journalists to obtain proposals for the final independent report prepared by the IOM on matters pertaining to migrant workers that would be presented soon at the SLBFE table.

Empowerment

Representatives of several nongovernmental and civil organisations at the workshop pointed out the importance of empowering such institutions as pressure groups to persuade public authorities to completely eradicate such malpractices and inefficiencies.

As there exists an urgent necessity to study deep into the management of the social cost of migration and also towards establishing a proper monitoring system to evaluate if the financial benefits brought by the migrant workers have effectively contributed towards eliminating poverty in the country, several representatives expressed that the attention of all authorities should be drawn to make a well-planned process to implement an overall migrant policy that could not be changed solely through political will overtime.

The requirement of preparing an authentic framework that is endemic to Sri Lanka for addressing the matters pertaining to local migrants was also widely discussed at the workshop.