The Hon. Arun Hemachandra - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Employment

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, I table the answer.

¶ 02 Answer tabled:

¶ 03 (a) (i) Under the agreements signed between the Governments of Israel and Sri Lanka, the following job quotas have been granted:

¶ 04 1. Agriculture – 10,000 2. Manufacturing – 2,000 3. Hotels – 2,000 4. Restaurants – 2,000 5. Construction – 10,000 6. Infrastructure – 2,800 7. Rehabilitation – 5,000 8. Caregivers – initially 500; currently no fixed quota, but approximately 2,000 may be sent periodically. Total – 33,800

¶ 05 (ii) As stated in (a)(i).

¶ 06 (iii) Numbers sent to Israel for employment in the sectors listed in (a)(i) are as follows (as at 2025.04.02; selection processes in Manufacturing, Hotels, and Restaurants are not yet concluded):

¶ 07 Agriculture: 2020 – 0; 2021 – 0; 2022 – 239; 2023 – 1,599; 2024 – 7,145; 2025 – 1,656; Total – 10,639. Hotels/Restaurants/Infrastructure: Selection processes ongoing; no deployments yet recorded as at 2025.04.02.

¶ 08 (iv) Yes. Of the candidates selected by the second lottery dated 2023.12.07 for the agriculture sector, 2,407 have not departed.

¶ 09 Of these, 850 candidates underwent agricultural training through the Hambantota, Tangalle, and Ratnapura training centres. A significant number of Sri Lankans previously deployed to Israel’s agriculture sector lacked the requisite skills and some absconded from workplaces. Consequently, Israel has temporarily suspended recruitment of Sri Lankans for agriculture. Therefore, these candidates could not be deployed.

¶ 10 Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA) has indicated that, going forward, the following selection procedure should be followed for agriculture-sector applicants: 1. Select candidates via a physical fitness test. 2. PIBA will administer an English-language questionnaire to assess knowledge; a list of those who pass should be submitted to PIBA.

¶ 11 Accordingly, a physical fitness test was conducted by the Army Training School at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium, Diyagama, for the 850 trained candidates. Approximately 584 passed. A delegation from the Israeli Mission conducted interviews for 433 of them; only about 96 passed. A second-round interview was conducted for 193 candidates and a list was sent to PIBA. As at 2025.04.02, we have not received the results of pass/fail for that batch. Therefore, about 1,557 candidates remain awaiting deployment.

¶ 12 As employers are reluctant to recruit Sri Lankans to the agriculture sector, selection is temporarily halted and deployment is not possible at present.

¶ 13 (vi) Under the 2023 agreement, agriculture long-term visas allow work for three months. However, in the 2023 intakes, many recruits lacked adequate skills and some absconded. Consequently, Israeli employers have shown reluctance to recruit Sri Lankans and demand is now very low.

¶ 14 The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Agency continues discussions with PIBA to restore agriculture job opportunities. A procedure, as outlined in (iv), has been prepared under PIBA’s guidance. As and when opportunities are notified by Israel, candidates meeting those criteria will be deployed.

¶ 15 (b) Does not arise.