Lankan women seeking housemaids’ jobs abroad down 37%

Tuesday, 26 November 2013 01:12 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Ashwin Hemmathagama Our Lobby Correspondent The number of Sri Lankan women seeking employment as housemaids overseas has decreased by 37% in 2013, as a result of stringent controls by State authorities. Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Dilan Perera told Parliament yesterday that the Government had also included family background checks in the controls to prevent fraud and other irregularities related to foreign employment. “The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau has spent Rs. 29.01 million in 2012 to arrange the repatriation of 960 Sri Lankan workers from Riyadh while spending another Rs. 5.9 million to arrange the repatriation of 129 persons from Jeddah,” the Minister told the House. He said there were presently 140 runaway housemaids in Riyadh awaiting repatriation. The Minister said that during the amnesty period extended by the Saudi Arabian Government, some 5,500 illegal Sri Lankan workers had managed to convert their stay and establish employment. “Relatives of migrant workers need not come to Colombo but can lodge complaints at Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau regional offices. Once such complaints are lodged, the recruitment agency is bound to respond within 48 hours. This has been taken to the Supreme Courts by the employment agencies. But the Government is not willing to change it,” Minister Perera added, in response to a supplementary question raised by MP Ranjan Ramanayake.

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