Front Page

Front Page

Fears over safety of Gulf migrant workers subside
By Nilika Kasturisinghe
Despite the Sri Lankan economy feeling the impact of the 10 day-old Gulf War, with petrol prices increasing by Rs. 2 per litre, anxieties over the safety of an estimated 950,000 Lankans working in the Gulf have decreased.

As flights between Kuwait and Colombo commenced operations, the free flow of passengers provided the much needed evidence that links to our 170,000 migrant workers in Kuwait remained unbroken.

SriLankan Airlines and Kuwait Airways recommenced flights this week. At midnight on Friday the second Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Kuwait was due to come in, while the first flight carrying 208 passengers landed in Colombo at dawn on Thursday.

Incidentally on the first SriLankan Airlines flight on the Colombo-Dubai-Kuwait run, 26 persons held tickets with Kuwait as destination. The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment has held discussions with several governments of West Asian countries and got fines for violations waived, enabling our workers in the safe houses to return to Sri Lanka.

A batch of housemaids from the safe house in Kuwait is due to return to Colombo tomorrow. Of the approximately 500 housemaids in the safe house in Kuwait, 56 have been issued with tickets and were expected to arrive in Colombo tomorrow. Already a batch of more than 30 housemaids returned from the safe house in Jordan, with the SLBFE purchasing the tickets for these returnees.

"The Saudi border is open, so people can cross over. There are Sri Lankan Embassy officials at the Kuwaiti and Saudi borders to help Sri Lankans who wish to cross over," a Ministry of Foreign Employment Welfare spokesman told The Sunday Times.

There are 20,000 people working illegally without visas. The Kuwaiti government has announced it won't fine anybody, but still they don't want to return. Nobody has come to the Embassy in Kuwait saying they want to return, he said.

Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando told The Sunday Times the Ministry is constantly in touch with the Missions and they are well in control of the situation.
Minister Fernando who has been appointed by the Cabinet to work to keep the United Nations together said he would be travelling to Geneva next month towards achieving this objective.

"We will be writing letters to all Foreign Ministers of countries asking for their support in this endeavour," he said. While applauding the fact that the UN Secretary General is getting involved in the relief work, Minister Fernando said he hopes the US will support the UN because the US must be part of the UN.

Meanwhile, on the economic front, Sri Lanka's tea market has been severely affected, with Tuesday's auction of low grown teas finding few buyers. These teas which are mainly for the West Asian countries were not in demand due to the war situation in the Gulf and 1.4 million kilos of these teas were withdrawn due to lack of buyers.

While tea brokers lamented that the industry is collapsing, the government stepped in to provide certain relief measures. A committee was set up to ease the hardships of the tea small holders. The committee, comprising Secretary, Ministry of Small Holder Development, Tea Commissioner, Director Plantation Management and Maintenance Division and the General Manager, Tea Small Holdings Development Authority, has proposed to save the industry by extending financial relief to the small holders who contribute 62 percent of the total tea production in this country.

They have recommended the Government allocate Rs. 143 million per month as relief funds to be dispersed among the tea growers. Due to the prevailing situation it is reported there is a possibility of certain tea factories stopping manufacture, thus affecting the small holders who supply their leaf. It has been estimated that there are approximately 260,000 tea small holders and 360 small holder leaf manufacturing factories.

Back to Front Page