COLOMBO : The Government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide driving licences to Sri Lankans in Italy which will be implemented in about a month and the government is working on reaching new agreements to send more Sri Lankans to Italy for jobs, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament yesterday (7).
The Minister said that an agreement had been signed with Italy, but Sri Lanka did not get job opportunities from Italy. He said that in the past, Sri Lanka and Pakistan were blacklisted by Italy and as a result Sri Lanka were not given jobs and that even visas were not issued. However, the Minister said that now that situation has changed.
Responding to supplementary questions raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Minister Herath said that the Rainbow Institute scam of Rs. 860 million that Premadasa raised about is not from the NPP government time and it happened at the time during their government. “It happened amidst political protection. These people who are caught are not the actual culprits involved in the massive fraud. They are the members of the board of directors you appointed. Among the real people involved in the fraud is one who defected from your side. His personal life is also related to the incident. He defected from your side at that time, that is, he defected to the government from your side at that time. After we came, full decisions were taken regarding that incident and the case has been filed in courts. The case is currently being heard in court.”
“The current Bill is not strong enough to take some measures related to foreign employment. Therefore, we are working to amend the 1987 Bill passed by the Foreign Employment Bureau and introduce a new Bill. Currently, all they have to do is keep their deposits. That is how they get away with it. As you said, there is Rs. 800 million there. These can be covered with the money of three people there. Because there is only Rs.3 million to be kept. So, in reality it is not enough. So, many measures have been taken in this regard. Six officials have been banned from working for this scam. Also, employees working in various departments related to the Foreign Employment Bureau have been identified and those who are helping in this racket are being investigated. We have already established a special police unit at the Foreign Employment Bureau. We will investigate these. Therefore, we will take strict action in the future.
Regarding Korea, 10,122 people have registered on the website hoping to go to Korea. According to the clauses of the signed agreement, if they do not get a job after two years, their names will be removed from the website. Not all 10,122 will complete the two-year period at once. Many will finish by this March. Those who came in between will go further. A significant number will leave. Therefore, even though the clauses of the agreement were there, we have requested the HRD to extend this period by at least one more year.
“There were not many job opportunities last year in South Korea due to the instability in the Korean government. Korean governments fell. Caretaker governments were formed, and the President had to resign. Such political instability occurred. With that instability, there was an economic collapse. With the political and economic instability in Korea, there was a decrease in the number of jobs coming to us. Now that situation has changed. Now a new government has been formed. There is a new president. Therefore, we have high hopes that job opportunities will increase this year.
“However, with high hopes, many have passed the exams and have even done the three medical tests as per the agreement. These were not signed by us, but by the previously signed MoUs. We have to act subject to the agreements in this MoU. However, we discussed with HRD to retain those who leave this website without removing them. We have already informed them in writing. We hope that our Deputy Minister will go to South Korea this month or early next month to discuss this and request some grace period.
“Next, the people on the website are not selected by the people here in Sri Lanka. Some people on the website have a problem, while there are people who have registered earlier, those who have registered recently are getting jobs and leaving. That is not something that officials do. The selection is done randomly. The factory owners in Korea do that selection. When they tell HRD, HRD makes that selection. In some cases, someone who registered two months ago can be considered random. There is also a problem with this. When we look at the agreement about this, nowhere in the agreement does it say to send in the order of registration. It says random selection.
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