Crisis pushes Sri Lankans to emigrate

The long lines to buy meal and fuel during the acute economic crisis last year in Sri Lanka they gave way to queues to process a passport and flee this bankrupt country.

“What we consider to be normal is a mirage”said Gayan Jayewardena, a 43-year-old customer service executive, in line to get a passport for his one-year-old daughter.

“The situation is not improving”said Jayewardena, whose wife and two other daughters already have documents to leave the country.

“If we think about it from the point of view of our children, it is better to leave. We want to emigrate to a country like New Zealand”counted.

This Southeast Asian island country of 22 million people suffered from shortages of basic goods in 2022 after the government ran out of hard currency to finance imports, including medicines.

Desperation sparked protests that led to the downfall of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in July.

His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, doubled taxes and cut subsidies, two highly unpopular moves, but which allowed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve a $2.9 billion credit plan in March.

The Washington-based entity expects an economic recovery in 2024, but many Sri Lankans are less optimistic.

The new government managed to restore the supply of basic goods, but with prices sometimes three times higher.

“We are trying to leave”

Computer engineer Maduranga, a 38-year-old man who will only give his name, said the high cost of living and taxes led him to consider emigrating to Australia.

“The cost is going up, every day it goes up more, but the salaries remain the same”, he synthesized. “The companies are not raising salaries and that is why we are trying to leave”.

At the Overseas Employment Office, where Sri Lankans must register before accepting a job abroad, the number of registrations rose from 122,000 in 2021 to a record 311,000 last year.

In the first five years of 2023, this agency recorded that about 122,000 people left, the same number as in all of 2021. But authorities estimate that many more left the country on tourist visas to seek employment in the Middle East and elsewhere. parts of Asia.

Last year, 911,689 people applied for a passport compared to 382,500 requests registered in 2021.

This trend continues.

This year, through the month of May, 433,000 travel documents were issued, according to the Department of Immigration and Emigration.

Brain drain

Sri Lankans have been migrating for decades and both skilled workers and unskilled people seek opportunities abroad, especially in the Gulf countries.

But the impact of the current brain drain is beginning to be felt.

The construction sector, one of the hiring engines, is losing skilled workers and professionals at an alarming rate.

“There is a migration on a grand scale” in this sector, affirmed Nissanka Wijeratne, general secretary of the Chamber of the Construction Industry.

Lalantha Perera, a 43-year-old professional in the insurance sector, said that his salary is not enough to support his wife and two children.

“After last year’s protest campaign we had a bit of relief”recounted. “But that’s not enough and I’m planning to go to a European country.”

The Advocata Institute think tank said middle-class employees seek work abroad to escape poverty.

The director of the Advocata Institute, Dhananath Fernando, pointed out that “The poorest have had to reduce their meals.”

AND “the middle class, those who can afford it, are trying to emigrate,” he claimed.

Source: AFP