Let the Sri Lankan expatriate workers return and quarantine at home - Ethera Api

Janaka Adhikari, Attorney-at-Law, Financial Secretary of Ethera Api organization said that the government was not attending the burning problems of the Sri Lankan expatriate workers. "Many Sri Lankan workers in the Middle East cannot return home because the government has no proper plan for repatriation," he charged.  

Ethera Api organization pointed out that contracts of some of these expatriate workers have ended. They have no social security and even food and lodging in some situations. They will be fined for overstaying because of the fault of the government of Sri Lanka. 

"Some housemaids have to work in homes under dire conditions without legal contracts. They are subjected to exploitation as a result of the situation. Some have no place to live and they sleep in public parks and roadsides," Adhikari said. "In Dubai, there are over 7,000 Sri Lankan workers waiting to return to Sri Lanka. There are thousands of similar Sri Lankans in countries like Saudi Arbia, Qatar and Kuwait." 

The representative of the Ethera Api organization said that some Sri Lankans had worked illegally, but they sent much needed foreign exchange to the home country. The workers who have no work visa face the utmost difficulties. Ethera Api organization demanded the government to attend to the problems of these Sri Lankans also.

"Let them come and quarantine at home. Don't delay their return citing the lack of space for quarantine," Janaka Adhikari demanded. He pointed out that there was business behind repatriation of Sri Lankans. "Srilankan increased airfare unfairly and the workers cannot bear it. They have to pay for quarantine in hotels which belong to government cronies." 

Meanwhile, the government claims they have repatriated more than 40,000 Sri Lankans and the operation which was held due to the second outbreak of COVID-19 will resume next week.  

Photo: Foreign workers in Dubai via UCA News)

 

430 Sri Lankans who were stranded abroad arrive in the island

After social media posted photos of homeless Sri Lankans including women waiting in parks in Arab countries stuck there due to flight cancellation, 430 expatriate Sri Lankans arrived in the country yesterday and today. EK 648 brought 50 Sri Lankans from Dubai, ET 8804 brought 110 Sri Lankans from Dubai and UL 226 brought 270 more people from Dubai. 

Sixty-six more Sri Lankans are expected from Mumbai today, says National Operation Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19. 

All the persons who arrived in the country will have to undergo 14 days of quarantine in centres maintained by the military.  

Meena Sathi, a UK trained academic (Gender, Poverty and Development), who is presently domiciled in Dubai and is currently occupied as an activist cum volunteer, assisting the migrant worker community stranded there, speaking to Ceylon Today, said many, including well over 100 Sri Lankan men and women, with various visa statuses (visit, work and resident, with persons who fall within the definition of the latter two categories also losing their jobs in the wake of COVID-19), have been experiencing such deprivation and degradation for weeks on end. They are languishing in a few public parks near the Sri Lankan Consulate such as that in Jafiliya, which has no toilets let alone the bare essentials of basic sanitation and healthcare facilities, and no sleeping mattresses made available for its non-arboreal inhabitants. 

In the backdrop of the ever-present societal fear of COVID-19, she noted that, when they go to relieve themselves at toilets in small shops and petrol stations, they are scolded for being potential carriers of the virus. As far as food and drink are concerned, while the Consulate supplies food packets for breakfast and lunch, those stranded claim that they do not receive their dinner from the Consulate despite stating otherwise.

Foreign Ministry has so far repatriated 40,000 Sri Lankans from over 122 countries and over 13,000 from the Middle Eastern Region, the focal point of the Foreign Ministry (FM) on COVID -19 Action and DG/East Asia Kandeepan Balasubramaniam said to Ceylon Today. 

(Photo: Sri Lankans living in a park - from Colombo Telegraph)

Another 'Humanitarian Operation' Proposed for Sri Lankan Expat Employee Heroes Stranded in Jeddah

(an old photo)

Sri Lanka government calls them Rata Viruwo in Sinhala language meaning Expatriate Heroes or more meaningfully Foreign Employee Heroes. True, the government must worship them in the morning and in the evening because they are the primary donors for the politicians' extravagances. They are the major foreign exchange source of the island economy. The Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion Dilan Perera says in the Ministry website, having received about US $ 4.1 billion in 2010, "remittance income is by far the highest foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka, providing 33% of her foreign exchange. Remittance income is 8% of Sri Lanka’s GDP, gained from Sri Lanka’s work force abroad. This work force is about 17% of Sri Lanka’s total labor force."

But a part of these heroes sleep in an open space under a bridge in Jeddah city tonight also since they are considered by Saudi kingdom as illegal migrants who must be repatriated. The number is well over 750 including more than 60 women, sources say.

The fate is similar for a number of other migrant workers from countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Jeddah is a hub of present day slave trade and the issue of the stranded migrants is also part and parcel of the city.

United National Party (UNP) MP Ajith P. Perera says that they are needed to be brought back immediately. He said that some of these employees have migrated to Saudi Arabia via foreign employment agencies and they have failed to secure employment due to regulations of Saudi government. Other sources say that the bulk of these Lankans had travel led to Saudi Arabia on short-term visas and later over-stayed with the intention of securing employment. There are also those who had entered Saudi Arabia on religious pilgrimages and later stayed behind. There are others who have fled from the workplaces violating the service agreements mostly due to inhuman treatment. Most of them have registered in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Saudi Arabia and awaiting expatriation.

The UNP MP proposed the government to bring them back home in a chartered plane considering the pathetic situation they are facing. A good campaign. This is what the government of Sri Lanka wants to shun. The government preferably awaits until the kith and kin of the bereaved migrant employees collect money and send them to bring them home. Saudi police may have already informed the Sri Lanka embassy to take action to repatriate them.

Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau said last week that the government of Saudi Arabia had agreed to provide temporary jobs for 5,000 Sri Lankan expatriate workers who were staying in the Kingdom illegally. Perhaps this may help them to fetch some money to buy their air ticket.

Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau says that the government of Sri Lanka is facing difficulty in bringing back them to the home country. However, 30 to 35 of these expatriate workers are brought home, the Bureau says.

Over 600,000 Sri Lankans are employed in Saudi Arabia. The majority of them are housemaids and other domestic aide.

Minister Basil Rajapaksa said on March 12 addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Rata Viru Piyasa programme of building houses for Sri Lankan expatriate workers at the Galagedara that it was the foreign exchange earned by expatriate workers which enabled the country to purchase much needed weaponry and aircraft for the successful conclusion of the humanitarian operation which liberated the country from terrorism.

Then why don't the heroes about whom we speak here deserve a humanitarian operation? It will be an actual humanitarian operation after all.

- Ajith Parakum Jayasinghe

Massive problem of to be expatriated Sri Lankan employees in Saudi

Parents of Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana who was executed in Saudi Arabia for a criminal offense she was accused of committing while being an under-aged girl who migrated to Saudi Arabia due to poverty of the family by way of a forged passport

Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) sources say that 70 Sri Lankans are in a jail in Damam for offenses like overstaying. Some of them have been granted permission to leave the country.

SLFEB further says that the government of Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide temporary jobs for 5000 Sri Lankan expatriate worker until they are duly expatriated. These workers have left their workplaces on various reasons violating their service agreements. They have been registered in the Sri Lankan embassy in Saudi Arabia and awaiting expatriation.

Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau says that the government of Sri Lanka is facing difficulty in bringing back them to the home country. However, 30 to 35 of these expatriate workers are brought home, the bureau says.

Over 600,000 Sri Lankans are employed in Saudi Arabia. The majority of them are housemaids. Remittances from two million strong expatriate workers are one the major sources of foreign earnings of the island nation.