‘FBR mandatory for all domestic female workers’
The Family Background Report (FBR) has been made mandatory for all female Sri Lankan workers employed in the overseas by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) effective from August 1.
The FBR was compulsory only for domestic female workers up to now. Accordingly, all women employees leaving the country for overseas employment must submit the FBR together with her other necessary documents and the application from August 1, Foreign Employment Minister Talatha Atukorale said yesterday.
Minister Atukorale said if and when a mother with a child less than 5 years of age leaves the country for employment, she must make arrangements to ensure the welfare
Minister Atukorale said if and when a mother with a child less than 5 years of age leaves the country for employment, she must make arrangements to ensure the welfare of the child and file a report to the SLBFE
of the child and file a report to the SLBFE.
Minister Atukorale said the SLBFE made the FBR mandatory for female domestic helpers seeking employment in the Middle East for the benefit of young families and domestic helpers themselves despite legal challenges and complaints to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva against the FBR.
“We have heard and read thousands of heart rending stories of families that have been disrupted and collapsed after the young mother left the country for employment. A motherless young family is prone to many a disaster than the financial benefits provided by her from a foreign country. Majority of the cases of incest, rapes, and extramarital affairs of the husband and the disruption of education of the children are reported from families where mother has left for foreign employment”, she pointed out.
The government cannot prohibit sending women as domestic servants in West Asia overnight but does the next best thing which is to send them under good working conditions, better wages after securing the welfare of the family behind, she said.
Minister Atukorale added that she has decided to lodge a complaint with the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) on the financial irregularities allegedly that took place at the SLBFE in the last few years.
“My attention has been drawn to payments made to a woman from the SLBFE in the last few years producing forged documents. The information on financial mismanagement has been unearthed during an audit inquiry she said.