• Voice of Migrants’ Network’s Executive Director Michael Joachim warns that SL is going to face a returnee issue due to insufficient fund allocation for returning and reintegration
• No training for non-domestic workers on remittance management/return- and reintegration-planning/family management during absence 

Migrant workers’ contribution to Sri Lanka’s economy is significant and their role as skilled workers has been crucial on many occasions. However, despite their role and contribution, they lack recognition and representation in the country.

This was noted by the Voice of Migrants’ Network’s Executive Director Michael Joachim, who stressed that migrant workers’ representation in decision-making bodies is insufficient. He notes the importance of their representation in the Parliament and in the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE).

He made these remarks during an interview with The Daily Morning.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

In the context of the Israel-Iran conflict, the Government has taken various measures to assist Sri Lankan migrant workers. What more do you think that we can/should do to ensure their safety?

There are about close to 2.5 million to three million people who are migrants. They are the people who bring the largest amount of foreign exchange to our country. At the same time, by being employed outside of the country, they are easing our problems with unemployment and under-employment. They have created a situation where we have a migrant industry. So, we need to think of these things very seriously; think of migrant workers, about whom we think of only in a crisis situation.

The actions that the Government has taken are satisfactory for the moment. The Indian Government has offered free transportation to Indian passengers to New Delhi, and they have offered some seats for Sri Lankan migrant workers as well. They are supposed to pay to travel from New Delhi to Colombo. Whether they are able to pay or not, we need to show that the SLBFE and the Government are concerned by offering them free transport (to Sri Lanka). That may not be a very big thing, but that shows our concern and goodwill towards migrant workers. Apart from that, the steps that the Government has taken seems to be alright for the time being.

At the same time, this is not the first time that we are facing a crisis like this. Bringing back migrant workers or returning and reintegration is a serious question in crisis situations. The crisis situation was serious at the time of the Covid-19 crisis, and thereafter, there was the Lebanon and then the Jordan crises, where we were trying to bring the people back. In every one of those situations, we miserably failed and it brought a very bad impression about the parties responsible for migration such as the Foreign Employment Ministry and the SLBFE. We still have not really thought of having a national migrant crisis-response policy, which we have been telling the SLBFE and the Ministry. We talk about such matters only when a crisis like this arises.

Successive governments have taken various steps to reform labour laws, including those related to migrant workers. In your opinion, what law and policy reforms are yet to receive adequate attention?

Migration needs to be looked at as a migrant industry, and the workers need to be looked at as workers in that industry. They are not recognised as workers even under our labour laws. We are concerned about them not being recognised under labour laws in countries of destination, while in our own country, they are not sort of recognised as workers. That is something that we need to pay attention to. That is a complicated situation because the employer is outside (the country). But, there should be some way that we can include them into our labour law. 

When we talk of migrant workers, we have not given migrant workers access to voting. About 2.5 to three million people having access to voting can dramatically change our whole political situation in the country. We are benefiting from their income or their remittances, but we are not recognising their rights as voters and citizens. This is a very serious situation. As a policy, this has been accepted by the Government recently when the Election Commission made a request that migrant workers need to be given access to vote. The President accepted that. In addition, this is a time when they should have representation in the Parliament. The Government has given representation even to the disabled people here. That is a very good thing. But, we have not thought of giving representation to migrant workers in our Parliament. Giving them access to voting is a long process that might take time. But, at least now, they should seriously think of having nominated a Member of Parliament (MP) or change our Constitution and nominate an MP so that he/she can raise their voice in the Parliament. We only talk of this in a situation like this. But, if there was a representative in the Parliament, there is an impact that we could make.

Another matter is the SLBFE’s Board of Directors, which consists of people from the Ministry, experts in the area, and persons from employment agencies. It was necessary to have so many people representing employment agencies back then, but the situation is not the same today because people are now able to find their own employment and register with the SLBFE. The lack of representation of migrant workers in the SLBFE’s Board of Directors is a serious lapse, because all the policies or all the decisions that are impacting migrant workers are made by people who are not migrant workers. So, migrant workers also need to be given representation. We engaged in advocacy regarding this, and they agreed on policy to include one. It is not about the number, but the impact that the migrant workers could make in policy decisions. So, this is one thing that we need to change if the Government really wants to make an impact on the lives of migrant workers.

What is your assessment regarding the performance of the SLBFE when it comes to Sri Lankan migrant workers? In what ways could/should it improve?

We need to seriously think of having equal or equitable or impactful representation of migrant workers themselves in their Board of Directors.

Secondly, a lot of corruption cases have been reported and the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises has elicited so much information of corruption in the SLBFE itself. Now, how do migrant workers look at the SLBFE as an agency that safeguards the rights of migrant workers and then safeguard the industry? The Government needs to rebuild trust in the SLBFE and in the Ministry as soon as possible by investigating these and also ensure that these kinds of fraud don’t happen in the future.

In addition, the branch offices of the SLBFE in several places are not functioning to do what they were really established for, and it is therefore very important that they look into addressing the situation.

Another thing is that we are going to face a returnee issue. There is no certainty as to when they can get back, or when the situation would get normal for them to return. So, returning and reintegration is something that we need to pay attention to. We already have a returning and reintegration policy. But unfortunately, there is no sufficient fund allocation for returning and reintegration. So, how are we going to handle the returnees? How are we going to reintegrate them?

There are also concerns about what is called the recognition of previous learning (RPL) process. When our people go abroad, they may not have the skills but they can still learn them, although they may not be recognised. The Government already has a programme to recognise them. But, the process is so difficult, and the certification process where they are asked to prove their experiences is very difficult. So, the authorities need to seriously think of making the RPL process more applicable so that the migrant workers who are returning can use their skills. They not only bring money, they also bring skills. How are we going to make the best use of the skills that they are bringing back?

Opposition MP Ravi Karunanayake recently proposed that the Government considers introducing a mandatory minimum wage policy for migrant workers. What do you think about this proposal?

This depends on the demand and supply policy. There is already a concern as to whether we have sufficiently skilled persons to meet the requirements of the destination countries. This is a big problem. There are also various areas where destination countries want migrant worker skills which we are not able to provide. So, that is a matter that we should seriously look at. Simply fixing a minimum wage and then working on that will not be sufficient because there may be other competing countries that claim that they have skilled workers or that they can accept lower wages than us. Therefore, we need to manage this situation and seriously think of meeting the demands of destination countries.

What is the status quo when it comes to providing education for migrant workers? How should it be improved?

In many cases, the training that we give (for migrant workers) focuses on what they need to do in a foreign country, especially in the case of domestic workers. But, there is no training for other people on how to manage their remittances, how to plan for their return and reintegration, or how to manage their families in their absence. These are things that the training needs to concentrate on.

It is very important that you give them financial training and then safeguard the families. We are recommending a community-based family-protection policy and its implementation. When it comes to the ground level, they cannot implement this unless they think of strengthening migrant societies at the grassroots level. Most of the people don’t know that there are migrant societies at the ground level. Religious institutions should support family-strengthening programmes and the Government should think of strengthening migrant societies to support the families because migration has been increasing and anybody can be a migrant worker tomorrow. You can become a migrant worker, and if you really work with migrant societies, you can be sure that your families will be looked after. So, education needs to be given, not only to meet the requirements in destination countries, but also for the migrant workers’ families’ benefit.

Sri Lanka has taken various measures to produce skilled labourers. What are your recommendations to improve these efforts?

There are a lot of opportunities for training available for skilled workers. But, unfortunately, we don’t speak about migration as we should. It should be discussed among the people more frequently so that the people can be encouraged to become skilled workers. We don’t get even the youth and women interested in getting skills (for migration). Therefore, there must be a lot of talk about the importance of having skilled migrant workers and getting them the relevant certificates so that they can find better employment.

What steps can Sri Lanka take to improve the mental and physical health of migrant workers and their families, especially when it comes to those working in countries affected by various crises?

Psychosocial support for migrant workers’ families is important not only in a crisis situation, but also in normal situations because they are missing important members of their family and are facing a lot of psychosocial problems. However, there is no system where they are particularly targeted to provide psychosocial support. You have psychosocial trainers and counsellors at the Divisional Secretariat level, but most people that come for psychosocial support or counselling are not migrants. We should really improve these mechanisms to look into the psychosocial problems faced by migrant workers’ families. This must be a regular function that is not limited to crisis situations.

This is why we are also talking about strengthening migrant societies. Get their support and train them, because they are the people at the local level who could really help these families. My feeling is that when it comes to making people aware that they are able to help another person, it is something that naturally exists in our people. We have seen in our migrant societies that when you train them as psychosocial instructors or psychosocial support providers, they really go out and do this work voluntarily and they also take pride in it as they have helped people.

This is something that we need to think of – on the one hand, we can strengthen the mechanism that we already have, and on the other hand, we can look into how we can get the community’s support to strengthen this mechanism.

What is the situation in Sri Lanka with regard to migrant worker-related advocacy efforts? What suggestions have your network presented to the authorities?

We should ensure the rights of the migrant workers to organise themselves, because it has to be done here and also in their destination countries. We need to think of a suitable mechanism. It is a difficult thing to do both locally and in foreign countries, but we should seriously think of that.

Our foreign service has also been very weak in the sense that we have never heard migrant workers talking good about our foreign service. We ourselves have seen how ambassadors or officers of destination countries work. Maybe the Government has changed some of those things. But, the embassies need to respect migrant workers as the backbone of our economy. This thinking has to come from the Government and any party working with migrant workers.