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By Ananda Kannangara

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) yesterday revealed that a record number of 72,842 Sri Lankans had secured employment opportunities abroad during the first half of this year. The Bureau said that 72.5 per cent of them are females.

"Attractive salaries paid by many foreign companies and individual employers for skilled and experienced workers is the main reason for this increase," Chairman, SLBFE Susantha Fernando said in an interview with the 'Daily News'.

He also said that numerous welfare measures including medical facilities, health insurance schemes in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation and also low interest Bank loans for workers and their dependents granted by the Bureau are other contributory factors.

At present nearly 1.5 million Sri Lankans are employed overseas. Thirty per cent of them are in countries such as Cyprus, Maldives, Hong Kong, Italy and Singapore. Around 80 per cent of the migrant workers are females while 60 per cent of them are employed as domestic workers.

Fernando said that the SLBFE has also planned to introduce more welfare facilities including airport facilities at the departure and arrival terminals of the Bandaranaike International Airport for the benefit of workers on the directive of Employment and Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.

"We have also introduced compensation schemes for workers in the event of death of workers while serving in foreign countries or being physically disabled during their employment period."

Fernando said that nearly 273,000 Lankans are currently employed in Saudi Arabia. Kuwait is the second largest with about 125,000. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the third prominent job supplier to Sri Lanka with 107,000 workers currently employed there.

"We have also deployed labour officials to look into employment matters of our workers in all countries where Sri Lankans are employed," he added. 

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