Lankans should prefer skilled jobs abroad

The Sri Lankan government has been mobilising their people, who intend to travel abroad for better prospects, to look for semi-skilled and skilled jobs and discouraging them from opting for menial positions as that lands them in various troubles, the top diplomat from that country said.
In an interview with Khaleej Times, Mohammed Nabavi Junaid, Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UAE, spoke about the new developments with regard to labourers and housemaids.
Talking about his government's efforts to reduce the number of people who look for unskilled jobs abroad, Junaid said, "In the recent past, the number of Sri Lankans who opted for menial jobs dropped drastically from 50 per cent to 30 per cent. We are striving hard to ensure that no Sri Lankan travelled abroad for any menial job."
According to the mission's records, over 35,000 Sri Lankans are residing in the capital and over 165,000 in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
Earlier, the Sri Lankan embassy had fixed the salary of housemaids at Dh825 per month. On asking whether the number of housemaids travelling to the UAE has gone down, the envoy said, "The fixing of wages of housemaids did not affect their arrival but most of them have now started to opt for semi-skilled jobs. And this number has gone up. We give those who come as housemaids in managing household chores."
Junaid said, "Nowadays, there are not too many complaints from housemaids and labourers. We always strive to resolve the cases amicably and not let them lodge complaints with courts. We settle cases at the mission."
The number of people who are kept in the embassy's safe houses does not exceed ten. So the situation here is quite good when compared to the other countries in the region, the envoy said, praising the UAE government's regulations.
"Our community always lives here amicably and peacefully and follows the host country's rules and regulations," the ambassador said.
Asked about the outsourcing of passports, the envoy said, "We don't have that much work to sign an MoU with Empost like Indian embassy. We have a small community. Only issuing new passports take time as they have to be sent to Colombo. In case of extension and correction or any change, it does not take more than two hours as maximum.
"We do not let people return without completing their transactions on the same day. If we delay a person who is coming from Ras Al Khaimah or Fujairah, where will he stay.