Sri Lanka cabinet eases family background report for potential women expatriates
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has approved a measure to remove family background report from the mandatory requirements for a females to go abroad and earn in foreign currency as the country is grappling with dollar shortage.
The decision was taken after receiving complaints of such reports getting delayed and unqualified females using illegal migration methods to go abroad.
“In some instances, it has been reported that females having intention to engage in work abroad face inconveniences due to delaying the relevant reports due to various reasons by some officers although all qualifications are fulfilled,” a government statement said.
Some females who do not possess qualifications to seek such reports have left the Sri Lankan shores by illegal means without any supervision and reportedly encountered numerous issues.
According to the current laws, it is a compulsory requirement of submitting a “family background report” with an intention of confirming that the children of the female migrant employees who leave for domestic work abroad are not less than 05 years.
The cabinet has decided to revise the law and reduce the children’s age to 2 years from 5.
Due to the severe forex shortage in the country, the government has revised many laws in order to get more foreign remittances from the expatriate workers and to encourage more locals to join overseas jobs.
In the last week’s cabinet decision, the minimum age for females to depart to the Middle East as housemaids was reduced to 21 years from the current 23. (Colombo/ June 28/2022)
