The government is currently paying attention to facilitate the return of Sri Lankan migrant workers who are in dire straits in certain foreign countries, says the Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha.

Explaining the Cabinet Paper submitted by the Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Wednesday (06), Aryasinha said repatriation of local migrant workers are a category facing dire situations in foreign countries and that special attention must be paid to facilitating their return.

“The Foreign Ministry’s view always had been that once thee return was allowed and repatriation started, it should be done on the basis of maximum vulnerability. It is on that basis that we recommended that South Asian students be prioritized and that first concluded only about a week ago.  Now several other groups of students have also been brought back and will continue to be brought back,” the Foreign Secretary said in a televised interview.

“I see the Maldives, where a lot of Sri Lankans want to come back, particularly about a 1200 – 1500 living in Male Island, as the most vulnerable,” he noted.

Speaking further the Foreign Secretary said that in places like Kuwait, in addition to the vulnerability for COVID-19 which is common to the rest of the Middle East, there is also an amnesty declared by the Kuwaiti government.

“We are conscious that there is anxiety on the part of foreign employees that if they lose this amnesty, they will have greater difficulty coming out and returning legally someday. The Kuwaiti government at this point has offered to fly them back to Sri Lanka. In fact, this evening Foreign Minister, having received Cabinet sanction yesterday, is going to engage with its Kuwaiti counterpart and will be discussing a process by which Sri Lanka can respect that amnesty offer. We will be starting the process, but the Kuwait government is very conscious that we can’t bring all the people who are wanting to come at this point. Therefore, we will have to, between the two governments, have some negotiations on how we phase that out.”

He also pointed out the issue of Sri Lankan expatriates working in places like Bangladesh, where COVID-19 is spreading at a very rapid pace, while noting that there are more than a thousand people there, out of which about 300 plus are women and children.

The government will similarly focus on repatriating vulnerable migrant worker categories from the Middle East and elsewhere, he commented, adding that the Cabinet Paper’s second aspect was to ensure that local quarantine facilities are reserved for those coming who are unable to afford to go to quarantine in Hotels.

“Third, the Cabinet Paper referred to the continued Diplomatic representation to sustain a large number of migrant workers in their current places of domicile and also to ensure that there is continued supply to the most needy, which is something Missions with the support of the SLBFE has been doing over the past few weeks.”

“There is also a category of about 3000 people out there who are there on short term visits and stuck, they don’t have that choice, they have to come back home, and we are trying to draw them also into the present movements, to the extent possible, probably with the hotels being used for quarantine, which are also now getting filled up.”

To those who have a choice, the Foreign Secretary advised making an objective assessment of their circumstances. “Somebody who is, say in a country where universities are functioning and the term not over, might lose out education-wise if that person tries to move around. The same way somebody who is in a job whether in the Middle East or any country, blue-collar or white-collar, at this point when you come back, you might not be able to return to that job because those countries are also cutting back and everybody is scaling down, and so is the case in Sri Lanka. But if you don’t have a job already, then I can see the logic, but I think it is important that people out there understand that when you come back to Sri Lanka finding jobs won’t be easy either.”

“Those who insist on coming back, we will prioritize in an objective way. Not by looking at faces or connections, but by looking at the real necessity of their repatriation at this point and our capacity to bring them and quarantine them, so that they are not a danger to those in the country and they don’t unnecessarily expose themselves to a danger on the way into the country, the Foreign Secretary commented further.