Mar 31, Colombo: The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) states that from April 1st, female migrant workers who do not register with the Bureau and who seek foreign employment through illegal means will not be admitted to the shelters at embassies.

Suraksha Safe houses have been established under the labor welfare sections of Sri Lankan embassies for women who are registered with the Bureau and go abroad for work. The embassies provide the necessary welfare facilities and residential facilities to the women who come to the embassies to get the various services they need while they are employed abroad.

Although these shelters have been established only for women who go abroad for legal employment, up to now the Bureau of Foreign Employment has worked to provide all necessary welfare facilities to women who have gone abroad without registering with the bureau.

When the women who go abroad without registering in the Bureau come to the safe house, they create various conflict situations and there were cases where the police had to be called in to control the conflicts. Some of these cases were publicized by the media in the past few days.

Therefore, in order to control these situations, the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau has decided to suspend the reception of women, who are not registered with the Bureau and come for employment through various illegal means from 01 April 2023.

The SLFBE has reached this decision as a step taken to encourage women to go abroad for work through legal means, and to discourage women to go for foreign jobs through the intervention of various brokers and illegal foreign employment agencies.