Pre departure, Reintegration and Policy Advocacy in the migration Process

 
This paper focuses on migrant workers from , who are predominantly women. The Sri Lankan Bureau for Foreign Employment (SLBFE) regulates foreign employment, including the licensing and monitoring of recruiting agencies. The Government of Sri Lanka also has arrangements with its embassies in 12 receiving countries to register contracts of Sri Lankan workers. This paper also illustrates how has taken steps to address gender needs in relation to migration, as well as the needs of families.

This review is based on work undertaken by organisations and individuals during the past few years to study and analyse the migration patterns and the experiences of migrating labour. The consultation process included the voices of migrant workers who argue that despite the systems that are in place, exploitation, particularly of women migrant workers, continues to take place on many levels.

Ms. Nimalka Fernando, author of the paper, is the President of the International

Movement Against all Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), an international

NGO based in having roster status of the ECOSOC of UN. She is also the

Convenor of the Sri Lanka National Campaign for the Rights of Migrant Workers.

IMADR has a sustained interest in developing a strong advocacy for migrant workers and has been an active partners of the Migrant Rights Watch in the campaign for the ratification of the UN Convention for the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families.

IMADR Asia Committee began field research and progammes in 1997 to develop

advocacy for the rights of women migrant workers. Nimalka Fernando is a lawyer by profession and has been engaged in women’s rights activities at the local, regional and international level since 1989.

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