Foreign Minister gloats over sale of our people’s labour

Our foreign minister seems to have missed the wood for the trees

Our Foreign Minister – Vijitha Herath -- was in a jubilant mood over the past few days. He announced foreign exchange remittances from Sri Lankan migrant workers had increased by nineteen percent. He boasted that the  remittances at the end of December 2025 stood at a massive US$ 7.8 billion. 

Central Bank reports at March 2025 showed that while our total export trade amounted to US$ 1,242million, migrant worker remittances amounted to US$ 693 million. In other words,  remittances from migrant workers brought in more than  half of our total foreign exchange earnings!

With this in mind, perhaps, the FM announced with equally pride that the NPP/JVP government had set a target of securing 350,000 foreign employment opportunities for our citizens in 2026. Unthinkingly -- or perhaps it had not occurred to the good minister --  that the process he is committing this country to is more commonly known as brain drain.  

The minister seems to have forgotten that the primary responsibility of a government is to create jobs and foster economic stability within its own borders. According to the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment,  235,802 skilled persons and 73,748 low skilled workers left the country seeking employment abroad. The reason for this -- so-to-say - mass migration of skilled persons from our country has been low salaries, lack of job security and corruption which prevents citizens from reaching their full potential in their chosen fields.

In the case of low skilled workers, large numbers of our people are often exploited by their employers abroad. The case of low skilled Lankan workers in Israel is a case in point. Emigration of Lankans to Israel is mainly in low skilled sectors.

The employment conditions are governed under government-to-government agreements. However, when our Deputy Foreign Minister visited Israel earlier this month, workers complained of ill-treatment, non-payment of agreed wages and even cases of death threats made to workers demanding agreed wages.

The emigration of highly skilled workers is proving even more problematic. For example,  the exodus of doctors in search of greener pastures has stretched local health services to breaking point. The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), reported that more than 1,700 doctors, or about 10% of the country’s total number, left over the last two years.

A similar situation exists in other specialised fields as well. According to the CEB media spokesperson, a total of 226 engineers left the country in the last three years to pursue job opportunities abroad. An estimated 10,000 IT professionals also migrated from Sri Lanka since the onset of the economic crisis. This list continues to grow. 

Our foreign minister seems to have missed the wood for the trees. When our citizens are FORCED to seek employment abroad, it deprives our country of the human capital needed for this country’s own development. While remittances sent by workers abroad are a crucial source of foreign exchange, it prioritises short-term financial gain over the long-term goal of building a robust, self-reliant national economy. There are some cases where workers lack legal protection. 

Speaking in parliament,  the Prime Minister who is also Minister of Education, said that the highest amount allocated for education has been marked in this year’s budget and in 2025. But, through our free education system are we in fact using the scant resources of our country for the benefit of more developed lands?

As Professor Premachandra Athukorala speaking at the Reform Now Conference hosted by the Advocata Institute said, the FM looking on the export of labour for long-term national development is shameful, as this country has the potential to generate jobs within our borders. The JVP earlier preached self-sufficiency. By sending our skilled workers abroad to earn ‘a few dollars more’, we are promoting long-term dependency at the expense of sufficiency. 

Cronyism, family circles, corruption and a bureaucracy over-concerned with procedure at the expense of efficiency have been the bane of attracting direct foreign investment to our country. Today, a number of our own blue chip companies are investing in foreign lands. If we cannot even inveigle local companies to invest here, should we be surprised at the meagre direct foreign investment our country is attracting? 

The Government should not be gloating over the sale of our workforce to third countries. Rather,  it needs to not only create conditions which prevent the flight of local capital from our shores. It needs take action to rid the country of causes which make direct foreign investment here infeasible.