The government is actively encouraging the drain, both to lighten the public-sector wage bill and in the hope of increasing remittances, Sri Lanka’s biggest source of foreign currency
Official records suggest that 300,000 of Sri Lanka’s 22m people left for jobs abroad in 2022, most of them low- and semi-skilled workers. From January to March this year, another 73,000 left. And there is evidence that middle-class professionals have now joined the exodus.
Foreign recruitment agents are hiring young professionals on social media, says Rajitha Seneviratne, a 37-year-old air-traffic controller mulling an offer from the Middle East. Last month, his union warned that if “four or five more” of its members left, air-traffic control could break down.workers have also decamped, potentially cramping one of Sri Lanka’s fastest-growing industries. Hundreds of doctors have gone, including 477 from January to August last year.
The foreign employment minister, Manusha Nanayakkara, is trialling various schemes to push Sri Lankan workers overseas. His office advertises job openings with foreign governments on social media. A WhatsApp group and YouTube channel called “Rata Yamu”, or “Let’s Go Abroad”, publicises jobs Sri Lankans can secure through a state-run employment agency.
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