Health assessment, a must for long stay visas

by Manjula Fernando

A health assessment report for ‘resident visa’ or ‘long stay visa’ applicants to Sri Lanka will be made compulsory in future under the proposed National Migratory Health policy of the Government launched last week.

The proposed National Policy which deals with the health of the migration population was launched by Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday.

At the launch, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Head of Mission in Sri Lanka Richard Danziger praised Sri Lanka for its pioneering follow up action on the resolution adopted at the World Health Assembly on migratory health.

“Sri Lanka is the first country in the United Nations World Health Assembly to present progress on the Resolution on Migrant Health,” he said.

Sri Lanka became the first to launch such a comprehensive policy document which the Government hopes to implement in the near future. The policy spells out a number of measures including action to prevent cross border spread of deadly or other diseases such as Avian flu during global outbreaks.

It will also regulate health screening for travellers from disease prone zones and refugees returning from Tamil Nadu. According to IOM, “A migration health policy is seen as an important goal by the Sri Lankan government as the economy benefits to the tune of USD 5.1 billion from its two million international labour migrants.”

It said that the growth in the economy after the war against terrorism is leading Sri Lanka to become a labour receiving country. Ensuring safe and healthy migration for the benefit of all is a concept to which the Government of Sri Lanka is committed to through this policy document, prepared with the support of IOM after three years of research.

Director General of Health Services Dr. Palitha Mahipala outlined the objectives the Ministry aims at fulfilling under the proposed policy.