A high level delegation from the Foreign Employment Ministry and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) visited Bahrain to discuss existing issues and predicaments of Sri Lankan expatriate workers to secure employment opportunities in the sphere of semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled for Sri Lankans in the Kingdom.
The delegation from Sri Lanka was led by Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Dr Saj Mendis, along with Ministry Additional Secretary Yamuna Perera, accompanied by SLBFE Deputy General Manager I.Pathinayake and senior officials from the Foreign Employment Ministry, the SLBFE and the Embassy of Sri Lanka.
During this five-day visit to the Kingdom, the delegation conducted discussions with Ausamah bin Abdullah Al-Absi, Chief Executive Officer and President of Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), a number of manpower and employment agencies having close affiliation with Sri Lanka, migrant workers, protection bodies and other relevant institutions.
The discussions and discourse the delegation from Sri Lanka had with the LMRA chief and other employment agencies were highly productive, focused and fruitful.
The delegation visited Sri Lanka in May this year and conducted high level discussions leading to the signing of an MoU to create and to augment skilled and highly skilled employment opportunities to Sri Lankans in Bahrain.
During this visit, Al Absi discussed critical issues of significance and relevance with the Minister and SLBFE officials.
The office of LMRA President is equivalent to that of a Cabinet Minister of the Government. The LMRA is a body which has been vested the sole authority and powers to regulate and to control work permits and authorisation for expatriate and migrant employees and self employed, in addition to issuing of licenses for manpower and recruitment agencies as well as addressing labor market reforms, protection of employees and all other concomitant issues related to expatriate and migrant employment in the Bahrain.
The LMRA is the apex body in the country with regard to expatriate and migrant employment and is highly influential vis-a-vis the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
During the discussion at the LMRA head office Ambassador Dr Mendis and Additional Secretary Yamuna Perera briefed on the challenges and predicaments confronted by certain Sri Lankan expatriates in the Kingdom. The Chief of LMRA and his delegation assured that the LMRA would address those issues in a mutually beneficial manner.
He further added that the LMRA would be introducing a new recruitment system to secure the rights of the workers and reduce the percentage of illegal workers in the Kingdom.This will benefit existing Sri Lankan workers as well as potential Sri Lankan workers. The delegation from Sri Lanka assured that an appropriate database consisting of potential employees of Sri Lanka would be compiled in due course, thus enabling potential employers to seek qualified and skilled Sri Lankan employees with ease.
The LMRA Chief said the Kingdom is eagerly looking for semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled employees from Sri Lanka in categories such as engineering, quantity survey, IT and ITES, accountancy, management and hospitality. The Kingdom is seeking for care-givers and nurses, for the newly planned state of the art Awali hospital in the Kingdom, among others.
The CEO of LMRA stated that the Kingdom wishes to recruit skilled and highly skilled Sri Lankans since they are known to be as well competent, dedicated, committed and honest. Most of the existing employers and potential employers in Bahrain prefer Sri Lankan employees very much and urged to seize the opportunity.
Ambassador Mendis said that most of the Cabinet Ministers and members of the Royal Family that he called upon echoed similar sentiments vis-a-vis Sri Lankan employees.
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