THE PLIGHT OF PLACEMENT AGENTS

FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES STRUGGLE AMID LICENCE FEE HIKES, EQUALISATION BRINGS RELIEF

- 

For years, a fragmented and prohibitively expensive licensing regime turned Sri Lanka's foreign employment sector into an exclusive enclave for the financial elite. By pegging fees to destination regions, previous administrations inadvertently fostered a “mafia” culture that shuttered dozens of smaller agencies. The current government's move to equalise the bank guarantee at a flat Rs. 3 million marks a pivotal shift toward transparency.

This standardisation is not merely a fiscal adjustment; it is the necessary dismantling of a discriminatory system.

Foreign employment agencies have become a business mainly affordable to the wealthy due to repeated increases in onetime licence fees (Bank Guarantee), the founder of the United Vision Platform of Licensed Foreign Employment Agencies M.Z.M. Azzam said.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, he said that under previous governments, licence fees were increased up to Rs. 9 million, depending on the destination country.