Human trafficking: US report highlights Lanka’s failures

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the US Government's principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign administrations on human trafficking. This year, Sri Lanka is ranked as Tier 2. It, therefore, shares space with countries that do not fully comply with the minimum standards “but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards”.

Among the areas in which Sri Lanka has not met minimum standards include not effectively addressing vulnerabilities to trafficking faced by migrant workers, including high workerpaid recruitment fees, largely unregulated sub-agents, and policies and procedures that undermined safe and legal migration.

“During the reporting period, Sri Lankan missions abroad assisted 226 migrant workers with shelter, including potential trafficking victims,” it continued. “According to an international organisation, when carrying out screening and despite their training, some labour attachés often did not know what questions to ask migrant workers, what evidence to look for, or whom to contact in other agencies to refer potential cases.”

“Embassy shelters could only accommodate females, so it was unclear where exploited male migrant workers stayed before repatriation,” it stated. “Some migrant workers at the shelters reported poor conditions, including inadequate food, unsanitary living conditions, and insufficient legal assistance. Only Sri Lankan workers who had registered with SLBFE prior to departure could access legal assistance from Sri Lankan embassies, including assistance securing back wages from employers.”

“Although SLBFE maintained district-level offices, it usually required repatriated migrant workers to visit the main office in Colombo to launch an investigation into recruitment and labour violations, including trafficking, which many of the indebted and daily wage workers could not afford,” the report pointed out. “As a result, trafficking victims continued to withdraw complaints or not come forward.”

“The government did not make efforts to eliminate legal fees recruitment agencies are allowed to charge migrant workers, which increased workers’ vulnerability to trafficking,” the report said. “SLBFE reported monitoring the costs charged to migrant workers, although fees varied by destination country, employer, and job category.”

“SLBFE required each migrant worker to pay a registration fee equivalent to more than one month’s salary that required renewal every two years,” it records. “Additionally, an international report published in 2019 noted some workers reported recruitment agencies charged an additional 8,000 to 150,000 LKR ($39-$740).”

“Some officials reported SLBFE’s lack of close monitoring enabled agencies to charge fees in excess of the legal amounts; some workers paid as much as 1 million LKR ($4,930) for the entire recruitment process, including fees charged by illegal sub-agents,” the report said. “However, SLBFE reported that no recruitment fees are charged for the domestic work sector in Middle Eastern countries and professional categories in which employers bear recruitment costs.”

“SLBFE officers in the conciliation division do not always recognise elements of trafficking and may handle cases administratively, rather than referring the case to police,” it observed. “During the reporting period, SLBFE cancelled the licences of six recruitment agencies and took action in 35 cases against malpractice and irregularities in the labour recruitment process. This compared with 30 cases and the suspension of three foreign recruitment agencies for illegal practices in the previous reporting period.”

Although the Government reported that a legislative framework to address subagents existed, SLBFE did not have the legal authority to regulate sub-agents, which officials recognised contributed to trafficking.

The Government continued to seek approval for an amendment to the Foreign Employment Act to address the oversight of subagents and the investigative authority of MFE officials, including SLBFE. The Act has been in the pipeline for over a decade.