Tackling trafficking of people through safe migration

Sri Lanka ranks among the world’s 20 main exporters of labour services. As a percentage of total exports of goods and services, it was as high as 20 percent in 2004. It was equally high as a percentage of import of goods.

Migrants constitute 12% of the population, earn 23% of net foreign remittances and contribute to 17% of national savings. Sri Lankans who migrate for foreign employment are handled by the private sector and monitored by a State Bureau. It is a land based employment programme.

The private sector operates amidst excessive competition to secure jobs, and in the process some charge exorbitant fees, lower standards of employment and sometimes expose migrant workers to unanticipated risks.

A majority of Sri Lankans who are exposed to this situation are women who leave the country as housemaids. They are not protected by any labour laws while in employment and have no human rights while they are out of the country. The distinction between slavery and employment in this situation remains rather thin.

It is encouraging to note that though the recently approved Labour Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under article (7) (2) exempt “Domestic helpers and the like” from the law, yet it provides that “the Ministry shall in coordination with the competent authorities draft regulations for domestic helpers and the like to govern their relations with their employers and specifies the rights and duties of each party and submit to the Council of Ministers”.

The reality is that a woman who comes for employment to a house has to forego her passport, her identity and individuality.

She loses her independence and her right to move. In spite of these restrictions, some women leave their employers and hide themselves. However the strong arm of the law intervenes and they are detained or placed in jail for loitering. Even if they run to the Sri Lanka embassy for protection, after inquiry the embassy will normally send them back to their former employer or to the police.

Incidents of women who fall from buildings and die prematurely are often suspected by their relatives as incidents of murder or suicide caused by unbearable trauma. Feminization of migration has posed the greatest challenge for the Sri Lankan Overseas Employment Programme. The “Commodity supply Approach” of Select, Train, Pack, Insure and Export may not succeed in this venture as human nature which is diverse does not always bend itself to regulations. Should this continue in the 21st Century? A different approach is called for.

For this purpose receiving countries should be required to respect human rights and ensure that they reach bilateral agreements with the authorities in Sri Lanka to provide protection and welfare to visiting Sri Lankan workers, adopt a reasonable grievance procedure and compensate victims of abuse and violence.

It is reported that 20 –30 percent of persons leaving for employment abroad do not register with the Foreign Employment Bureau. It is claimed that they prefer not to do so, as they are compelled to pay registration fees which are levied on the basis of placement charges permitted under the law, even when they find jobs on their own.

Today our concerns are mainly reactive, to regulate the process of recruitment or levy of fees and count on earnings from external remittances. We have to make sufficient attempts to improve quality and introduce professionalism in migrant services. We are on the search for alternative sources of employment for our workers; hence we should provide alternatives to migration, locally or encourage overseas employment after training in skills for women workers who are now sent overseas for domestic service. The overseas employment programme should be proactive, value based and very much a part of an overall national employment strategy.

Sri Lanka’s Overseas Employment Programme has worked on the basis of temporariness. After nearly 20 years of the Bureau’s existence the time has now come to consider a long term overseas employment strategy. It is not possible for Sri Lanka to offer a total overseas employment package through a Bureau. The future calls for setting up an Overseas Employment Authority with sufficient influence over several departments like state agencies and training and human resources development institutions engaged in manpower preparation.

Of the several ministries established in Sri Lanka recently, nearly one half of them are engaged in some programme of in-house training and at least six key ministries had HRD and training responsibilities to prepare manpower. Coordination and efficient networking will enable such authority to pursue an organized delivery system that will supply overseas demand yet not result in manpower shortages in the domestic economy. With the full backing of Sri Lanka’s diplomatic service it will be possible to clear likely bottlenecks and obtain guarantees from labour receiving countries on the quality and quantity of jobs they offer, minimize abuse, exploitation and premature termination of contracts.

The Bureau of Foreign Employment its structure, powers and nature of operations when examined closely against the demands for overseas labour in the Gulf and emerging new destinations in Europe and East Asia compels us to note the relevance of a strong agency equipped to undertake a comprehensive overseas employment promotion strategy as well as combine it with adequate training and manpower preparation to meet targeted destinations.

It should enable the conclusion of high powered bilateral agreements with labour receivers and ensure the decline of trafficking, illegal recruitment, and clandestine movement of people and other pitfalls of overseas migration we are accustomed to and more importantly provide the average Sri Lankan job seeker an avenue for safe migration.

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment was established by Act no. 21 of 1985 and commenced operations in August of that year. It replaced the operations of the Foreign Employment Division of the Department of Labour and opened the doors to private sector participation in the business of foreign employment. It had the purpose of providing overseas employment to a large body of unskilled workers and the earnings of foreign remittances to the country. It sought to invite the private sector to be active partners in the operations of its activities and unfortunately at the same time seek to regulate business of the private sector.

Though Sri Lanka has not ratified ILO Convention 97 on migration nor used the measures outlined in ILO recommendation 86 on reaching accords and bilateral agreements with labour receiving countries much of the legal provisions made in 1985 were modelled after ILO Convention 97. Two other ILO Conventions of relevance to migration ILO 143 which restricts recruitment in abusive conditions and curtail trafficking and a more recent Convention ILO 181 on Private Recruitment Agencies which provide for association of social partners in migration policy particularly in regard to levy of recruitment fees remains to be embedded In the law.

The only international instrument on migration which has been signed and ratified by Sri Lanka is the UN Convention 1990 granting rights to migrant workers and members of their families. Sri Lanka is the only country in South Asia to take this bold step. However here again the law and regulations in Sri Lanka remain to be adequately modified to incorporate these provisions. In the meantime labour market changes of great significance have opened job opportunities for any Sri Lankan in the reservoir of jobs available outside the country if he can be assisted to avoid the pitfalls and dangers that may be in his way.

The following proposals of the Migrant Services Centre are submitted against this back ground. Views of most stakeholders have been gained and several consultations have enabled us to propose a change in structure, delivery, citizen participation in a process of safe migration that will be beneficial to the migrants and the community:

* It is desired to replace the “Bureau” (SLBFE) with an “Authority” with wider representation of interests, extensive powers and wide range of responsibilities. Proposed changes contemplate a policy that meets development needs of Sri Lanka; offer wider Social Protection and Welfare to migrant workers; up hold their Rights.

*It is desired to provide for gender mainstreaming; wide civil society participation and pro-active regulation of the several aspects of overseas recruitment as well as operations of private sector, including recognition of services of job agents who may be invited to assist licensed employment recruiters.

*We seek to provide for gender equity, empowerment of migrant workers, particularly female migrant workers, who still form the majority of Sri Lankans leaving the country for employment.

*We call for the provisions of promotion of employment and setting up of a Foreign Employment Promotion Fund; better delivery of services to migrant workers at pre-departure and while overseas and the training of staff of authority at all levels including staff serving in Sri Lankan missions abroad. We call for a clear grievance procedure and specified Rights of Migrants workers and their responsibilities.