~ Discusses issues related to migration with the participation of several stakeholders

A discussion on the role of journalism in advocating for safe labour migration was held recently at the Renuka City Hotel, with the participation of several national level journalists and mobile journalists from the Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum. The discussion was facilitated by the Community Development Services, Helvetas Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum and the Omnicom Media Group’s OMG Public Relations, with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Commencing the programme, Andrew Samuel of the Community Development Services introduced the key points discussed at the Global Forum on Migration and Development 2019. This is the only forum that brings together civil society movements, government and the private sector to discuss migration as a global development platform. The focus this year had been on the Global Compact on Migration (GCM), where nations have a role and responsibility to secure the rights, protection and privileges of migrants and migrant workers.

One of the focus areas that was discussed was the voting rights of migrant workers. There is a work force of 1.5 – 1.9 million migrant workers out of which 90% are employed in the Golf Corridor. The remittance that is acquired is close to USD 7 billion. This large migrant population is restricted in their voting rights as provisions to cast their vote is not made available unless they return to the country during an election. Most often, work contracts do not allow for this and as a result a large portion of votes are not cast. The options available are to arrange for a postal voting system, embassy or consulate office voting, electronic voting, in person voting or proxy voting. It was highlighted that the voting rights of the migrant workers need to be paid attention to in the forthcoming election cycles.

The Association for Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA) took over the discussion in an attempt to ‘de-demonize’ the recruitment agencies and explained the positive impact they have on migrant workers. It was emphasized that foreign employment played a large role in reducing unemployment as providing migrant labour as well as generating approximately 15,000 direct and indirect employment within the country through the many agencies that are in operation. In response to the pertinent question about sub-agents, fraudulent agents and brokers ALFEA stated that the Sub section 3 of Section 54 of the SLBFE Act, which made it mandatory for all agencies to be members of the ALFEA was amended in Section 8 Act No. 56 of 2009 as optional. Therefore, the association could not take reactive measures at the event of adverse situations.

Eminent Journalist Feizal Samath shared his experience in research and writing about labour migration for decades, where he pointed out the limited access to official data as one of the main obstacles journalists face when covering such a social issue.

The International Organization for Migration presented a comprehensive study of understanding human trafficking, explaining the difference between human trafficking and smuggling, and posed the alarming figures of the former in Sri Lanka. Over the past 5 years Sri Lanka has been placed in the Tier 2 Watch List in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report in 2015, 2016, 2019 with 66 referrals/ identifications of potential victims by state authorities last year.

The final session was hosted by the Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum, who train grass root level journalists to acquire and document real life stories of labour migration, mainly using mobile journalism. The discussion created a platform for national level journalists to connect with these ground journalists, where they could acquire verified information and be instrumental in taking that news to the wider audience.