“Nearly 35% of Lankans seeking jobs abroad are unskilled”

Career guidance counsellor Niroshan Hapuarachchi said that 311,056 people have been legally referred for foreign jobs in 2022 and among them 34 percent have gone abroad without any skills. He also said that 186,965 men and 124,091 women have gone to work abroad in 2022, according to the data of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE).

Hapuarachchi said this during a training workshop held on Wednesday (16) at Kandyan Art Hotel for journalists in Kandy, with the aim of empowering civil society organisations to combat human trafficking in Sri Lanka. The workshop was organised by the Saamadaanam Institute. He emphasised that according to the report, 31 percent of skilled and semi-skilled workers have gone abroad in that year and the skilled workers among them may have been around 10 percent. He also said that 24 percent have gone abroad for domestic work.

Hapuarachchi said further that human trafficking and smuggling is a business that involves a huge amount of wealth changing hands around the world and international organisations have shown that about US$ 150 million is exchanged in this operation.

The TIP report released in 2024 states that 49.6 million people are victims of modern slavery around the world and 71 percent of them are women.

Hapuarachchi said that among those 71 percent, 75 percent are sexually abused. He also said that there are 12 million children in this group.

Niroshan Ekanayake, Executive Director of Saamadaanam Institute, also participated in the workshop.

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