Exploiting tourist visa:

Foreign Bureau gets tough

Disna Mudalige

The Sri Lankan Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) will take stern action against those who migrate to Malaysia for employment by exploiting tourist visas, a bureau spokesman told the Daily News yesterday. The SLFEB had conducted several discussions with the Malaysian Embassy in Sri Lanka.

It was agreed to launch a web system to exchange data pertaining to the Sri Lankans who travel to Malaysia, to prevent illegal migration for employment. The Malaysian Embassy has raised concerns over this matter with the Sri Lankan government.

He said that 11 individuals who arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport to fly to Malaysia were detained last Friday after being confirmed that they were migrating for work by the means of tourist visas.

Under the new system, information regarding the nature of employment, the consolidated salary and the name and address of the institution will be uploaded to the computer. The eligible applicants will be issued working visas by the embassy after thorough scrutinizing of these details.

The SLFEB also requested migrants to complete the training programme of the Bureau and to sign a job agreement with it before they leave. “We receive complaints from Sri Lankan migrants over non payment of promised salary etc. If these migrants had signed agreements with us prior to their leaving, we could have mediated over the issues”, he said.

The spokesman also said that considerable number of Sri Lankans are working in Malaysia and Singapore without a valid working visa.