The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau had decided to blacklist all Lankan migrant workers who return after being convicted in the Middle Eastern countries for various crimes.

Most of these workers had been found guilty for allegedly staying without Visas and working and other places, escaping from house holds, robbery, engaging in prostitution and for flouting the laws of the country where they were employed. They are all to be blacklisted said the Chairman of  SLFEB Amal Senadhilankara.

The SLFEB officers also said that escaping from their employers had become a racket among the house maids and regular reports of these incidents had been pouring into the bureau.

With the proposed blacklisting, these workers would be prohibited from obtaining foreign employment in the Middle East and thereby they could minimize the number of issues surfacing in those countries relating to migrant workers.

Twelve countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan would come under this blacklisting.

Records indicate that at present about 1.7 million Sri Lankans were serving in the Middle Eastern countries, and about 500 of them are presently detained at centres of the Embassies in those countries.

It is expected to enact this rule as from September 2012 and necessary action is now in progress Chairman Senadhilankara said. (ISA)