More Control

Dec 16, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka plans to have new laws and make better use of information technology to crackdown on human trafficking and illegal worker migrants, some of whom are under-aged, officials said. Poverty and inadequate laws and co-ordination among government agencies are the reasons large numbers of migrant workers use illegal methods to go abroad, officials of governmental institutions handling immigration and foreign employment said.

Tighter Laws

Human trafficking in Sri Lanka cannot be curbed unless revisions take place in the legal policies to curb illegal methods of sending persons abroad, they said.

D B Sumithraarachchi, working director at the ministry of foreign employment promotions, said they plan to revise the 1985 foreign employment act, which will help curb human trafficking in Sri Lanka.

The act under which the foreign employment bureau that supervises migrant workers was established, gives regulatory powers to control employment agencies in Sri Lanka.

Apart from the weak legal framework governing trafficking, the desperate need of poor families to earn a living by sending members abroad, drive human trafficking, Sumithraarachchi says.

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