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SLBFE survey reveals incentives draw workers

by Ananda Kannangara

A recent survey carried out by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) has revealed that a record number of 260,000 Sri Lankans are currently employed in Saudi Arabia. Around 43,000 Lankans left for employment there during the first eight months of this year.

Kuwait was the second largest employer of Sri Lankans with around 125,000 in employment there.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the third prominent job supplier with 107,000 workers currently in that country.

Attractive salaries is not the only reason why Sri Lankans are increasingly seeking jobs in that country. A number of welfare measures including medical facilities, Bank loans and insurance schemes implemented by the SLBFE as well as the Sri Lankan labour officials in those countries is contributing to the number of migrating workers, an SLBFE spokesman told the Daily News.

He said the welfare measures were introduced by the Bureau on behalf of our workers following instructions by the Labour Ministry.

Introducing compensation schemes for workers in the event of their death or being physically disabled during their employment period, Housing loans and Bank loans for both the workers and their families and vocational training courses for workers prior to their departure are some of the new incentives introduced by the Bureau, he said.

At present nearly 1.5 million Sri Lankans are employed in foreign countries. Among them 80 per cent are female workers. The survey also indicated that 30 per cent of Lankan workers are employed in countries such as Cyprus, Maldives, Hong Kong, Italy and Singapore.

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