Labour Ministry wants relaxed health guidelines to expedite repatriation of migrant workers

• Says currently discussing with Health Ministry of ways to relax certain health guidelines 
• Over 45,000 migrant workers are expecting to return home 

The Labour Ministry wants the Health Ministry to consider relaxing certain health guidelines to expedite the repatriation of Sri Lankan migrant workers living abroad. 

“The question is where we are going to quarantine them. We are restricted by health guidelines. That’s the bottleneck. It’s not about the cost of the air ticket. If they can’t afford, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) or government can step in. The problem is quarantine facilities and health regulations,” Labour Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told Mirror Business.

Hence, he said he has requested Health Minister Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi to consider relaxing some of the health regulations that contributed to the slowdown of the repatriation process.

“If that’s permitted, the returning migrant workers can quarantine themselves in their own homes and we can bring all the expatriates who want to come back to Sri Lanka, within two months,” he said. As of October 12, last year, there were 817,650 Sri Lankans employed overseas, according to the official data provided by the SLBFE. 

Over 80 percent of these migrant workers were employed in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and 
the UAE.

As of October 14, last year, 11,268 Sri Lankan migrant workers from 14 destinations had been repatriated to the country and around 45,828 were expecting to return to the country.

The Labour Ministry, in collaboration with the other stakeholders, is currently in the process of analysing the information of returning migrant workers to understand their expectations—whether they are keen on remigrating, starting up a business, attending further training in certain chosen fields, etc., in order to facilitate them accordingly.
de Silva acknowledged that integrating some migrant workers who were employed in hard-hit sectors such as hotel industry could become challenging. (NF)