The Hon. (Dr.) Nalinda Jayatissa – Minister of Health and Mass Media (for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism)
The Minister, responding on behalf of the Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Minister, said the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment regulates foreign employment and prohibits sending persons under 18 abroad for work. He reported that a female who travelled to Oman in 2022 without SLBFE registration and under another passport identity was later identified as a minor, and the matter has been referred to the CID’s Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Maritime Crimes Division. He added that SLBFE applies minimum age limits for registration and has instructed airport officers to conduct strict scrutiny to prevent minors being deployed for foreign employment.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I answer on behalf of the Minister.
¶ 02 (a) (i) The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), established under Act No. 21 of 1985, regulates foreign employment and enforces the prohibition on sending minors (under 18) for foreign employment. Nonetheless, the Sri Lanka Embassy in Oman reported that a female, who travelled to Oman on 2022.06.12 without SLBFE registration under passport No. N1109775218 in the name “Mohammad Farhan Fathima Muveena,” was in fact identified as Adam Lebbe Fathima, born 2007.11.26. The case has been referred to the CID’s Human Trafficking, Smuggling and Maritime Crimes Division for investigation.
¶ 03 (ii) To prevent deployment of minors, SLBFE maintains minimum age criteria at registration: - Domestic workers (female): minimum 21 years (all countries). - Domestic worker (male) and all non-domestic jobs (male/female): minimum 18 years. No applicant below these ages is registered. SLBFE’s Airport Unit officers have been instructed to apply strict scrutiny.
¶ 04 (b) Not applicable.
¶ 05 State Lands in Manmunai North DS Division: Unauthorized Settlers
¶ 06 877/2025 7. The Hon. (Dr.) M.L.A.M. Hizbullah asked the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation:
¶ 07 (a) Will he inform this House— (i) whether persons are residing on State lands in Manmunai North DS Division, Batticaloa District, without a Deed of Grant or Land Permit; (ii) if so, the number, names and details; (iii) whether the Divisional Secretary has filed cases during 01.01.2017–31.03.2025 to evict them legally; (iv) if so, the number, names and details; (v) among those prosecuted, the number, names and details of persons evicted by court order within that period; (vi) whether there are persons against whom action should have been filed but was not; (vii) if so, their number, names and details; and (viii) reasons for filing against only a few while not against others?
¶ 08 (b) If not, why?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 21 August 2025 ·No. 1757391500023637 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
- Page · column
- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
- Permalink
/lk/speeches/22611
Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Nalinda Jayatissa – Minister of Health and Mass Media (for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism). 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 August 2025. No. 1757391500023637. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/22611