SL foreign employment agents claim status of ‘unsung heroes of the economy’
A discussion on “Labour migration – the Role of journalism in Labour Migration” last week in Colombo revealed a grim picture that did not reflect the benefits that are spoken of by foreign employment agents, though these agents have noted that they are the ‘unsung heroes’ in this economic arena of Sri Lanka.
The forum was organised by ‘ Community Development Services (CDS) for the journalists, involved in the reporting of labour migration and was held this week at Renuka Hotel, Colombo. At the inception, Andrew Samuel from CDS explained the various work they have done and also urged the authorities to provide facilities to migrants abroad for voting at Sri Lankan elections.
The purpose and objective of the ‘Forum’ was to nurture and build a network/group of journalists who want to take on development issues of the country as activists and advocates thereby challenging the government and the administrative system with accountability and responsibility
Holding the event for the second year running, the new feature this year was the presentation made by a veteran journalist, Feizal Samath who has been reporting on labour migration for the last 15 years and he shared his first-hand experience with the journalists present.
P. S. Selveratnam, Chairman/ Managing Director, Selco Continental (Pvt) Ltd representing the All Island Foreign Employment Agents (ALFEA) said that they play an extremely vital role in earning the highest quota of foreign exchange to enhance the country’s economy. He classified them as the ‘ Unsung Heroes in the Sri Lankan Economic Arena’.
But he regretted to note that before the public they are demonized indicating hypothetically that when they send 1,000 migrant workers to foreign countries, among them 999 would be doing well, but that one person confronting a difficulty, would be sensationalised and specially the social media would ‘go to the town’ with this so-called negative story, and also would go to the extent of politicising the issue.
He said that they take all efforts to collate all the essential documents, facilitate and send these recruits for foreign employment. In fact, he said, majority of them are successful, despite their trade being highly regulated. He said all good things are ignored and the bad are highlighted to the extent of demonising the recruitment agencies.
Though the unemployment rate for the last 10 years in Sri Lanka stands at 4.53 per cent, this rate would have been much higher if not for the supply of foreign employment as the numbers stand at almost 1.5 million. Not only that he noted that a plethora of other employment in the country such as workers for employment agencies, medical centres, travel agencies etc are available.
Remittances made by the migrant workers are accounted for, he indicated, but a notable omission is that the agents themselves earn in the range of US$3,000 in foreign exchange per person totalling several millions in US dollars annually. These are pure exports, no investment by the government is involved, he pointed out.
He also indicated that when these migrants face difficulties they ( agents) go to their rescue. But T. Suthershan, member, ESCO – Batticaloa (an NGO working on behalf of migrant workers) said that this was not true as the victims’ cases are not properly pursued to bring them adequate relief.
Sharing the journalist’s experience, Mr. Samath said there is a kind of a hidden factor within the whole gamut of labour migration.
Some migrants end up either in safe houses or detention centres when they face problems, he said and indicated that as part of his writing, he had got opportunities to visit some of these places.
He said that according to available statistics among these migrant recruitments around 10-15 per cent annually encounter problems. These are problems such as sexual harassment, overwork, required to work in several floors of an apartment and nonpayment of wages. Some are in detention centres for over-staying their visas, those who have run away from the employer and the employer not releasing their passports.
He said that he had the occasion of meeting some of the migrants in a church in Jordan and it was pathetic that some women have not visited Sri Lanka for 10 to 15 years and some were in fact married to men of other ethnic groups and were unable to return for multiple reasons.
“I have seen, heard and written about dozens of migrant workers who have had problems. There is a lot more having problems and this represents about 10 to 15 per cent per year from all those who go abroad. There is also another group who do not complain,” he said.