Sunday, June 17, 2012

Bid to reduce housemaid emigration

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) Chairman, Amal Senadilankara said they would reduce the number of housemaids and promote sending skilled-workers to earn more foreign exchange to the country than housemaids. He said the aim of the SLBFE was to reduce the number of housemaids going for overseas jobs by 50 percent by 2025.

Senadilankara stated the SLBFE had initiated several programs to improve the quality and skills of employees seeking overseas job opportunities. One of the main programs will be to upgrade the NVQ level of overseas job seekers up to level 3. This will be mandatory by September 01, 2012. The SLBFE will improve their countrywide training centers and promote improving their language skills. Senadilankara said that the programs would be initiated to improve English, Arabic as well as Hindi language skills of the employees to carter Middle East demands well. In addition, Senadilankara pointed out that there was a huge demand for the domestic nurses overseas and the government should take steps to increase the number of trained nurses to cater to meet that demand.
He also said a special agreement would be signed next week with the Samurdhi Authority to enable migrant workers to invest the money.

Source: The Nation

Strict formula for dual citizenship

Rs. 200,000 fee to be paid in two installments : 

The Immigration and Emigration Department will begin processing dual citizenship under a strict formula within the next three months.
Controller of Immigration and Emigration Chulananda Perera told the Sunday Observer that under the new criteria a Sri Lankan holding citizenship of another country will be granted permanent residency for five years before he becomes eligible for dual citizenship.
“This will be the norm for all categories of applicants in the future,” he said.
Sri Lankans living elsewhere need to submit details on how he or she obtained the citizenship of the other country and the intention to seek dual citizenship in Sri Lanka to process his application.
The information supplied will be verified from the Sri Lankan missions overseas and evaluated by a panel of officials representing the Immigration and Emigration Department and other state stakeholder institutions before the permanent residency and citizenship is finally granted.
The new system at a revised fee of Rs.200,000 to be paid in two installments during the permanent residency and citizenship applications procedure received the green light from the Cabinet recently.
Amendments to the current legislation, for instance Section 14 of the Immigration Act which restricts the visa for five years, is needed to give effect to the new set of regulations that govern the issuance of future dual citizenship.
“We have already drafted the amendments and presented them to the Legal Draftsman for fine-tuning,” Perera said adding that he was hopeful that the legal barriers would be cleared for implementation within the next three months.
The issue of dual citizenship was suspended since early last year in view of the new procedure being drafted.

Source:Sunday Observer