Focus on 'Brain Drain'

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Labour Relations and Manpower Minister Athauda Seneviratne on Friday focused on the topic of 'Brain Drain' and said that it was pathetic that many educated Sri Lankans are rendering a yeoman service outside the country without paying much attention to the development of the local economy.

He made these remarks at a conference held in Colombo to coincide with the launching of the country's first report on migration 'International Migration Outlook Sri Lanka- 2008.'

The report was prepared by the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The report, based on a study conducted by IPS and commissioned by IOM, outlines a comprehensive analysis of the trends, patterns and changes in migration from Sri Lanka in recent years.

Minister Seneviratne said migration from country to country is a common thing and during the past decade, many Sri Lankans had left the country due to various reasons, such as for employment, economic, educational or social reasons or due to political issues. The Minister also said that over 1.8 million Sri Lankans are employed overseas at present, which is nine per cent of the country's population and 20 per cent of the labour force.

"However, the Government is very concerned over the permanent migration of Sri Lanka's educated people, since they could make a large contribution to the country's economy and development drive," he said.

Minister Seneviratne thanked all Sri Lankan male and female skilled workers in the Middle Eastern region for bringing valuable foreign exchange annually to their motherland.

"But, unfortunately, our educated sector has no interest to boost the country's economy like our migrant workers in the Middle East," he added. IPS, Executive Director, Dr. Saman Kelegama said that international labour migration is an important area in the country's socio-economic system and migration from Sri Lanka has increased more than tenfold during the past decades.

He said there are social problems associated with international migration, especially the impact on the families left behind by migrant mothers, harassment and exploitation at the destination of work.

Secretary, Foreign Employment Promotion Ministry, Sunil Sirisena said that his Ministry has adopted several methods to collect data on migration.

He said the Ministry recently launched an islandwide program to collect information on prospective migrant workers in the country with the aim of developing a database.