JEDDAH, 30 October 2004 — Sri Lanka is to introduce a pension scheme for its overseas workers, which will benefit 350,000 of the island’s citizens living in the Kingdom.
Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) which looks after the island’s 1.5 million overseas workers is currently working out the modalities of the groundbreaking scheme.
Disclosing this to Arab News, the chairman of the SLBFE, Karunasena Hettiarachi, said the bureau has appointed a team under a consultant to work out the details of the scheme. “The new scheme is being framed in consideration of the services rendered by the island’s overseas workers by way of their remittance of foreign exchange to its national coffers,” Hettiarachi said. The Kingdom has the largest concentration of Sri Lankan overseas workers.
He pointed out that most of the Sri Lankans deployed abroad are contract workers who have to return home after the contract period and the bureau is trying to offer them a scheme whereby they can get a monthly income on their final return.
He added that those who have registered with the SLBFE would be entitled to benefit from the scheme.
A “modest” premium will be charged for those who would like to come under the pension scheme. Others who would wish to enjoy an enhanced pension will be required to pay a higher premium, he added.
It is a statutory requirement for all Sri Lankan overseas workers to register themselves with the bureau. The registration is valid for two years and this could be renewed at all Sri Lankan missions abroad. The registrants enjoy a host of facilities which include an insurance scheme worth SR15,000, repatriation of workers’ dead bodies and looking after the welfare of stranded workers.
“It is a good move which would definitely help the low-income group of the foreign workers,” the president of the Sri Lankan Expatriates Society, Rohan Burah, told Arab News.
While welcoming the scheme, the secretary to the board of management at the Sri Lankan International School in Jeddah, M.H.M. Jiffry, said that this was a long felt need of the community. The pension scheme provides a ray of hope for those low-income workers who do not have much savings in the Kingdom.
“The proposed scheme indicates the government’s respect and appreciation for its overseas workers who bring in large sums of foreign exchange to the country,” said Dr. H.M. Rafeek from the Riyadh-based Arabian Center for Natural Treatment.
“Sri Lankans working abroad should thank the government for the new scheme since it is going to help every one of them,” said Nihal Gamage, former president of the Sri Lankan Expatriates Society.
