In a move aimed at removing the housemaid concept the relevant authorities are working towards gathering employment in other sectors for Sri Lankan women opting to gain employment in foreign capitals, a senior official told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
“There is an urgent need to change this mindset for the betterment of the individual and the country.
It has also been observed that there has been a near 30 percent drop in Sri Lankan females opting for domestic worker placements overseas, and for whatever reason this may be this is encouraging”, Deputy General Manager Training and Media Senerath Yap at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLFBE) told the Sunday Observer.
In an encouraging recent development the SLFBE was able to recruit some 450 female caregivers through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Israeli Government and that there are 50 more such agreements on the waiting list.
However unlike the housemaids who earn a monthly income of less that Rs 100,000 the care givers take home earnings for month is an estimated Rs. 500,000, Yapa said.
He said that the reason for the gap in wages is that the care givers of more educated, well trained and in some cases they also possess previous experience.
“That is sadly not the case with the house maids’, he said.
He said that the care givers have to be in the age group of between 25-45 and a pre-departure fee of Rs. 200,000 for medical and air fare charges, Bureau registration fees and a stipulated sum to the Israeli agent from the Population Immigrant and Border Authority (PIBA). The care givers have to be health free and maintain a clean police records apart from other requirements prior to recruitment, Yapa said.
He said the SLFBE is also seeking to obtain job placements for Sri Lankan nurses in countries such as the UK, Singapore, and Japan and beyond.
In the meantime, some half a dozen or more private overseas job recruitment agencies are also actively involved in recruiting experienced Sri Land Nurses to the UK and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
A nurse in the UK could fetch a monthly salary of something like Rs. 900,000 per month while those employed in the UAE and other West Asian countries could earn a monthly salary of Rs 500,000, Additional Secretary for the Association of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies (ALFEA). M.H.M. Harshad told the Sunday observer.