Migrant workers, too, are our citizens

Lionel WIJESIRI

Statistics reveal that over a million Sri Lankans are employed abroad of which 95 per cent of them are in the Middle East. In 2005, the Government believes that around Rs. 192,000 million was repatriated by people working overseas on contracts arranged by labour export companies of which 56 per cent contribution from Middle East workers.

These remittances, so the theory goes, increase the earning power of family members back home and create spending ripples which reverberate through the local economy. For the poorest families, remittances can mean the difference between food shortage and security. This virtuous cycle - in which overseas work brings home income that can raise a family’s living standards while also contributing to others via new employment - is one strategy the Government is keen to develop.

Rosy

A recent study done by an INGO found that “remittances directly increase the household income of receiving families…in many cases by over 50 per cent.” It added that remittances can be “less volatile than other financial inflows” offering sustainable income to families in rural areas whose lives are “significantly improved by migrant remittances.”

But the picture is not as rosy as it looks, and a growing litany of horror stories from overseas is forcing the Government to tighten controls on this rapidly developing industry.

Debts

Recruiters from labour exporting companies focus much of their effort on the rural poor: people who, while most in need of the income migration could provide, are also relatively uneducated and provide easy fodder for unscrupulous middlemen. People desperate to find a better life beyond their village may mortgage valuable assets like land to pay an ‘arrangement fee’ or travel expenses leading to a job that eventually proves less lucrative than promised.

Take the case of Kamala in NE Province: “My sister applied to work in Jordan. My family spent Rs.One Hundred Thousand for her to prepare for her trip and was planning to borrow another Rupees Three Hundred Thousand to pay for the air ticket and commission fees. Just before we borrowed the money, my sister learned that her net salary would most likely not be enough…to send home to pay the debts.”

This family wrote off its initial investment and was able to avoid further debt. Others are less fortunate, discovering only on arrival in a foreign country and deep in debt that their earnings are too low to pay off debts owed to labour exporters, cover their living expenses, and still have money left over to remit to their families.

Working hours

Their woes are being aggravated by unethical hiring in some receiving countries, where the workers arrive to find the terms of their contract have been changed: working hours increased, salaries reduced, or terms of employment changed in other ways.

In an effort to improve monitoring of the way foreign workers are treated, the Government has signed memoranda of understanding with several countries. It is also now reviewing immigration policies.

With little support or legal protection in receiving countries, desertion rates among Sri Lankan workers who are mistreated by their employers have sky-rocketed in recent years.

Enjoy

On returning to Sri Lanka, not all workers enjoy the benefits, skills development. Most have worked in low-skilled jobs overseas and are ill-equipped to launch their own enterprises or work in the corporate sector, especially those who hail from poor areas. Another problem is a lack of business infrastructure. They lack access to credit, marketing and many of the other services needed to build a business.

Many others who return to families find difficulty in reconciling with members of the family after been influenced by years spent in a different culture. Often they sign up for more overseas work.

A number of initiatives are needed to strengthen migration’s positive effects while lessening the pain it can cause to families whose expectations are not met. Better pre-migration training, language and cultural preparation should be aggressively pushed by the Government to ensure that workers are prepared for their destination, and efforts should be made to maximise the financial benefits that can be reaped from the process.

Labour consultants come up with a series of additional suggestions: the Government should improve monitoring of labour export companies, create one-stop-shops through which potential migrants can access information and apply for jobs, provide Sri Lankan-language translations of overseas contracts, provide continuous legal aid to workers while they are outside Sri Lanka, and improve monitoring of conditions in receiving countries. Presently some of these things are under consideration by the Government.

However, the most critical issue is implementation of existing rules, before the creation of new ones. Sri Lanka has signed several international agreements on migrant labour protection but is failing to enforce them. We need to start immediately implementing the ILO, UN Convention’ and other promises.