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abuse
UN
migrant rights specialist tells Anadolu Agency that Sri Lanka needs to protect its migrant workers
"abuse, exploitation and harassment."
Abuse of workers abroad and reports about the mistreatment of migrants captured by
Australian authorities at sea mean there is a spotlight on the Sri Lankan government's
new "action plan" for dealing with returning and reintegrating migrants.
The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, Francois Crepeau, told
Anadolu Agency that Sri Lanka needs to take specific measures to better protect
people on the move; from labourers in dour conditions abroad to Sri Lankans who flee
the country in desperation.
Crepeau said there are serious concerns about the physical and work safety issues
faced by Sri Lankan migrant workers, the socio-economic conditions that drive, in
particular, ethnic minority Tamils to risk treacherous sea journeys and the islands
response to migrants.
Issues of safety, abuse, exploitation and harassment continue to plague Sri
Lankan migrant workers. As a country reliant on export of labour, authorities should
urgently address them, he said.
Money sent home by migrant workers provides income for nearly a third of Sri Lanka's
population while also remaining the island's main source of foreign exchange, with
remittances of more than $6 billion sent to Sri Lanka in 2013.
Crepau highlighted that Sri Lanka needs to examine more closely the deaths of
workers abroad.
In 2013 there were 298 migrant worker deaths, an increase of almost 4 percent from
2012. The value of insurance paid to the families of victims totalled totalled only
130,515,977 Sri Lanka rupees ($1 million).
There had been reports of mutilated bodies being returned to Sri Lanka, at times, with
missing organs. Autopsies are not performed in Sri Lanka and the families are often
not allowed to see these bodies, noted Crepau.
Protecting women
The vast majority of Sri Lankans working abroad are women employed as domestic
workers in Gulf States such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and
Kuwait. The trend has however reversed since 2012 because of several local policy
decisions.
Since January 2014, Sri Lanka has been insisting on a family background report from
women and does not recommend those with children under five years of age for
migrant work, which Crepeau, in a report to the government, described as a
"discriminatory practice" which denies women opportunities.
Women migrants often work in private households, making them particularly
vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Domestic work is excluded from most of the