MoU to benefit Lankans in UAE

Lanka-UAE to sign labour pact

Chamikara Weerasinghe

COLOMBO:United Arab Emirates Labour Minister, Dr. Ali Bin Abdullah Al Kaabi will sign a bilateral agreement with Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister Keheliya Rambukwella tomorrow in Colombo.

The Minister arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday.

The MoU is expected to bring benefits to the Sri Lankan expatriate community in that country and Sri Lankans planning to leave for jobs, Foreign Employment Bureau sources said.

The MoU will open new opportunities to expand relations between the two countries, the sources said.

The MoU will ensure that each Sri Lankan migrant worker gets a minimum salary of US$150 a month and they get their salaries on time, Foreign Employment Promotion Ministry sources said. “It will protect the rights of the Sri Lankan workforce. They will be entitled to holidays in that country.” sources said.

There are about 150,000 Sri Lankan migrant workers in the UAE of whom 65 per cent are females.