Lets

celebrate the International Migrants Day on 18th December 2012

Let's Appreciate Migrant Labour and Make a Better Tomorrow for Them Today, we celebrate the 13th annual International Migrants Day. This day is celebrated at a time when a suitable environment is being created to recognize the labor of International Migrant Workers, to protect their rights, and to build a better future for them. Sri Lankan Migrant Workers in many countries contribute immensely to the economy of their motherland. Most of these Migrant Workers are women. It must be noted here in spite of immense difficulties faced by migrant women domestic workers, they set out for foreign lands solely for the purpose of building up the economy. The majority opinion of our society today is that with the departure of a mother, the family is ruined, while a mother with children of less than five years of age should not leave the family. Our society forgets that the family responsibility is with the father when the mother goes to foreign land carrying the whole burden of the family. Only the tragic aspect of the migrant workers life is highlighted daily. It is true that Migrant Workers face hardships, but we are also able to see successful Migrant Workers who have achieved life success after all the difficulties faced by them. We know that there are fathers and relatives who have brought up their children and built up their families. There should be a survey of this success. The positive results of the women migrant workers can be brought to light by this survey. We oppose the effort of the people in power who try to introduce laws and policies preventing women from doing the job of their choice and travelling abroad by referring only to the negative cases. Rather than proceeding with the wrong measures, it is important to formulate an action plan for psychosocial benefit of the migrant workers and their families who are earning foreign exchange.

The responsibility of the government is implementing the laws and policies that safeguard the Migrant Workers who are contributing foreign exchange to the country. While building up all governmental and nongovernmental sectors for this, supporting for such action plan is the responsibility of everybody. We reiterate on the occasion of this celebration that Migrant Labourers are source of our energy and pride and we must confirm their protection.

Action Network for Migrant Workers (ACTFORM)