By
Raisa Wickrematunge

The Bodu Bala Sena manifesto doesn’t just touch on halal food; it also focuses on a variety of different issues. One of the group’s goals, which does not seem to have garnered much attention is the aim to stop sending female domestic workers to the Middle East. This proposal was one, which even met with some support, when it was first announced. Originally, Executive Committee Member, Dilantha Withanage said that tragic stories like that of Rizana Nafeek had spurred the group on to call for a ban of domestic workers.

Now, however, Withanage cites a different reason. “The Sinhala population is decreasing. One reason is because people are going for LRTs and abortions, but another is because women are being sent to the Middle East.”. He went on to add that even globalisation and the educational system were to blame as Sinhala women were having children later in life.

However, he said, the Bodu Bala Sena did not really wish to ban workers from the Middle East, but were hoping to discourage low end jobs which “resembled slavery.” Withanage added that many social issues emerged due to women traveling to the Middle East; cases of rape, for instance, and children being neglected. The women themselves were often sexually abused too, and deserved to live with dignity and find jobs within the country.

As such, the Government should make an effort to provide citizens with jobs within the country, and thus reduce the number of housemaids going overseas, Withanage said.

Yet in the Bodu Bala Sena’s eagerness to increase the Sinhala population, one important point has been overlooked, which is that these housemaids contribute significantly to the economy, providing vital foreign income in the form of remittances. And it turns out that the portion that comes from the Middle East is a significant chunk from the total
remittances.

Central Bank Data

According to Central Bank data, workers’ remittances were still one of the foremost foreign exchange earners even in 2011, surpassing earnings from textiles and garments. Gross workers’ remittances increased by 25% to USD 5.1 billion that year. The current account deficit in 2011 was significantly offset because of the increase in remittances.

Despite this, the Central Bank report says that there was a drop in workers migrating overseas- from 46 per cent in 2009 to 41 per cent in 2011 for domestic workers. Still, 107,816 women left Sri Lanka to work as housemaids in 2011. Many of them left for the Middle East- the region accounted for more than 90% of departures for work, mainly as housemaids. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait accounted for 80.3% of total departures for work in 2011- though this figure had decreased from 2010. Unskilled labour migration continued to increase despite state efforts to discourage it, and instead promote professional skilled migration.

This trend continued in 2012, according to the Central Bank interim report, with departures for work increasing 7.7% to 136,245 in the first half of the year, compared to the same time period in 2011. And the number of housemaids seeking work continued to increase as well. The total amount of foreign remittances increased to USD 3907 million from January to August- an over 15% increase. It is not a stretch, therefore, to say that cutting down on departures to the Middle East, even if just for domestic workers, would significant impact Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings and widen the current account deficit.

‘No Question Of A Ban’- SLBFE

Deputy General Manager of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), Mangala Randeniya said there was no question of placing a ban on domestic workers going to the Middle East.

However, he said, the Ministry was trying to discourage females from migrating to the Middle East by placing an age limit. A recent cabinet decision had been taken to increase the age limit of sending women overseas to 25 years for Saudi Arabia, and 23 years for most other Middle Eastern countries, except for Israel (21 years). The hope is that these 18-year-old girls will then be encouraged to go into vocational training, so that they can enter jobs, which would be considered acceptable to society, seeing as the prevailing social dialogue was against women being sent to the Middle East to work as housemaids.

Despite this, it remained true that the Middle Eastern countries accounted for a large chunk of departures for earnings- Randeniya set the number at between 58-60%. The Middle East was therefore the region, which accounted for the highest number of departures when it came to Sri Lanka.

Chairman of Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA), W P Aponso also said there was no question of an embargo on the Middle East for domestic workers. ‘This is just talk from the Bodu Bala Sena.” Aponso also went on to say that of the roughly USD five billion made last year, a significant chunk of it came from earnings from the Middle East. So there could be no question of stopping the workers traveling there, as there would be significant financial losses, he added.

Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare, Dilan Perera was unavailable to comment on the issue at the time of the newspaper going to press.

While it is true that many housemaids leaving to the Middle East end up being abused and ill-treated, the Government takes the view that the answer is not to impose a hard ban, but rather to try and discourage women from going overseas when they are still young and vulnerable, and also to encourage more skilled rather than unskilled migration.

The Bodu Bala Sena, meanwhile, appears to be working at cross-purposes with their aim being to increase the Sinhalese population.

While at first they were calling for banning sending women domestic workers to the Middle East, they have now softened their stance, saying that they can’t force women to stop travelling overseas. Yet they still seem to expect the state to create job opportunities, which would stop them from having to travel overseas – a difficult, if not impossible task, given that remittances remain one of Sri Lanka’s biggest sources of foreign income. At present, the SLBFE seems to have settled into a policy of encouraging skilled migration. Yet according to the Central Bank’s own figures, skilled professionals are migrating at a much lower rate than housemaids and other unskilled workers.

It’s a vicious cycle, which doesn’t look like it will be resolved any time soon, what with the Government having to walk a tightrope.
COURTESY:THE SUNDAY LEADER