The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) has spent Rs. 1,000 million this year for the facility management of safe houses run by Sri Lankan embassies abroad, Foreign Employment Minister Thalatha Athukorala said yesterday.
“This involved medical assistance provided to Sri Lankan migrant workers, providing legal assistance to those who have been imprisoned or serving jail terms in their destination countries to make up for their release,” she said.
Minister Thalatha Athukorala was speaking at the Foreign Affairs Ministry after she handed over compensation cheques to families of migrant workers who had died or become disabled while working abroad.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera also awarded the cheques.
Compensation to the tune of Rs. 72 million was paid to 39 families of migrant workers who had died or become disabled while at work in their destinations countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.
This is the fifth occasion that the government paid compensation to the survivors of the migrant workers this year. Rs. 345 million has been paid as compensation to 196 migrant worker families this year, Minister Athukorala said.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Harsha de Silva, Foreign Ministry Secretary Esala Weerakoon, Consular Division Senior Director General Sudantha Ganegamaarachchi and Director D. S. P. Wijegunasekera also participated.
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