The diplomat was speaking at a ceremony to mark the occasion among his country’s expatriate workers in the Kingdom.
The event was organized by the mission in cooperation with the Colombo-based Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), which looks after the interests of the country's migrant workers.
In Colombo Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa launched a nationwide program to felicitate the migrant workers of Sri Lanka who bring in billions of rupees in revenue to the country.
Rajapaksa led a walk from Galle Face Green to Temple Trees, an event jointly organized by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the SLBFE to mark International Migrants Day, which happened on Sunday.
The president also launched a new ATM card specially designed for migrant workers. Uthumalebbe said Sri Lanka's migrant workers contribute immensely to the country's economy.
"Your services are gratefully remembered by your motherland," the consul general told migrant workers in Jeddah. Some 500,000 Lankans out of the country’s 1.5 million expatriate workers are concentrated in the Kingdom.
Last year, the official said, the country received around $4.1 billion in foreign remittances from Sri Lanka’s overseas workers. “A substantial volume was from the Kingdom,” the diplomat noted.
Mohammed Meeran Jiffry, head of the labor wing of the consulate, told Arab News that labor problems in the western region is minimal.
He said the mission receives around one runaway maid per day.
"Such problems are either settled with the sponsors or the maidservants are repatriated home at the expense of the government," he concluded.
