Acute labour shortage in Lanka; 200,000 foreigners working here

Foreign workers, both with and without work visas, are arriving in Sri Lanka with the country facing an acute labour shortage, a Cabinet minister said yesterday.

Megapolis and Wester n

LABOUR PAINS

Development Minister Champika Ranawaka told the Sunday Times an estimated 200,000 strong foreign labour force was in Sri Lanka.

He said the Government should have strict immig rat i o n regulations to check the influx of foreign workers.

“We are facing a labour shortage even for simple tasks such as cleaning up a well or harvesting, thereby creating

a market for foreign labour. But we need to strictly regulate their arrival and departure,” he said.

The foreign workers mostly include Indians and Chinese, but also have workers from Bangaladesh, Maldives, Iran and the Philippines.

Some of the workers have arrived on work permits arranged via the Board of Investment (BOI), on visas provided for workers for the respective project or on tourist visas.

Chinese workers also are employed in the projects to extend the southern railway track and the Southern Expressway from Matara to Hambantota, at the Norochcholai power plant, and in several hotel projects in Colombo, among other projects.

Last year the BOI received requests for more than 8,000 work visas, and 5786 visa were approved.

A Sunday Times team visited a construction site where 250 Indian (Tamil Nadu) workers are employed. The team found the workers were putting up with tough working conditions, including 12 hour shifts daily.

“We work from 7.30am to 7.30 pm and are provided transport back to our lodgings,” an Indian worker said.

An Indian labourer is paid Rs 60,000 (25,253 Indian rupees) for a month and they have to find their own meals, though accommodation is provided.

The workers at the site said they worked all seven days including Sundays and were not granted leave.

“Even after we work all day, we prepare meals for ourselves. Otherwise, the money we earn will be spent on food which is expensive in Sri Lanka,” one worker said.

The workers said the construction company here paid them more than the money they earned in India but to earn that they have to put up with a life which has little or no leisure or entertainment.

Meanwhile, Chinese construction workers who work in projects at Galle Face and R.A.de Mel Mawatha in Kollupitiya said that they too experience hardship at work with the current heatwave being one of the problems.

A Chinese employee who identified himself as Hoo Young said that Sri Lanka was a beautiful country but it was too hot and difficult for construction workers.

He said they started work at around 8.30 in the morning and finish their work around 6.30. Mr young said they also faced communication problems with Sri Lankans.

The Chinese workers also said the life was routine with little or no leisure or entertainment.