Senaka D Abeygoonasekera, Chairman of Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Agency at  the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare.

 

Qatar which hosts about 100,000 Sri Lankan nationals is a favourite destination for workers from the south Asian country because it offers “a very attractive workplace and is a peaceful country to live in,” Sri Lankan government officials have said.
Of an estimated national population of 20mn, more than a million Sri Lankans are currently employed in the GCC countries.
According to Senaka D Abeygoonasekera, Chairman of Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Agency at  the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare, about  300,000 people leave the country each year to find jobs abroad.
Abeygoonasekera told Gulf Times  that Qatar is considered one of the world’s safest countries to live in, which makes it a top choice for migrants. “Everybody in the world also knows that Qatar is financially very stable.”
He said Qatar is one of the leading destinations for Sri Lankan skilled workers, where they earn reasonably well and live happily and safely.
“Also, the law of Qatar that is applied to foreigners is very fair. Qatar is a country which has pardoned many times in the past expats who committed mistakes due to their lack of knowledge. It has also rehabilitated  workers,” he said.
Abeygoonasekera said workers whom he has sent to Qatar had made very little complaints about the Gulf state.

 

Mangala Randeniya, spokesperson for
Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment

“The complaints were of a minor nature, which are mostly caused by cultural differences. They can’t change overnight. One also needs to be patient. So in that way, the Qatari employers are great.
“They have a lot of patience with our workers. They tolerate and co-operate. This is my personal experience. People who have worked in Qatar before and returned to Sri Lanka, say they would like to again work in Qatar,” he said.
He added that most Qatari companies were honourable and didn’t violate the contract of workers.
Abeygoonasekera put the number of “accidental” deaths of Sri Lankan workers in the entire Gulf region at about 10 to 15 people per month.
Mangala Randeniya, spokesperson for Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), told Gulf Times that the “overall” impression of Qatar among Sri Lankan workers was “positive”.
“Workers sent to Qatar face very few problems. Workers prefer to go to Qatar, actually, since it offers a very attractive workplace,” he said.
He added that most Qatar-based employers adhered to the conditions laid out in the contracts and only very few cases of violations occurred.
Randeniya said of the estimated 100,000 Sri Lankans in Qatar, the majority were men employed in the construction industry and  as salespersons. Many also worked in the hospitality and service sector.
Out of the total $6.3bn foreign exchange Sri Lanka earns through remittances from its overseas workers, $5bn or about 80% comes from workers in the GCC region.
Randeniya didn’t give an exact figure for the remittances from Qatar, but said: “We observe a good flow of money from our workers in Qatar.”

M Faizer Mackeen, Secretary of the Association
of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies.

An official of Asian Lanka Establishment Pvt. Ltd, a Colombo-based recruitment company,  told Gulf Times that earlier, the recruitment process for Qatar was very protracted since it required a lot of paperwork, including police reports, medical tests, etc. “But now, it has become easier.”
“Recruitment agents can get Qatar visas for workers ‘very easily’ compared with Kuwait or Bahrain. For Qatar, we require only the passport copy to start processing the visa. Also, the job orders come within two to three weeks,” the manager, who wanted to stay anonymous, said.
He added that Qatar was “definitely a good destination” for recruitment agencies to send workers. “There are many good opportunities in Qatar for recruitment companies like ours especially because there is a big demand for workers in construction projects. Our company has good clients in Qatar,” he added.
The comments were in contrast to the reports that have appeared in a section of the Western media criticising Qatar for ill-treatment of migrant labourers.
According to the Qatar Central Bank’s Financial Stability Review 2012, the money sent by all expat workers through 20 exchange houses operating in Qatar was to the tune of QR37bn. Of this 66% was sent to Asian countries.
The per capita annual remittance by Sri Lankan workers was above QR10,000, but less than QR20,000, the QCB report added.
According to M Faizer Mackeen, Secretary of the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA), there are 975 manpower recruitment agencies in Sri Lanka that have been granted licences by the SLBFE.  
“We send  200,000 to 250,000 people every year to the Middle East, out of which 33% is direct recruitment and 67% is through licensed agencies,” he said.
Saudi Arabia employs the largest number of Sri Lankan workers in the Gulf region. The second largest employer is Kuwait, where about 40,000 people were sent in 2013. “But now the second place is being overtaken by Qatar, which used to be at number three,” Mackeen said.






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