Lankan Ambassador in Jordan in inter-diplomatic dialogue on common issues of expatriate workers 

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Jordan A.L.M. Lafeer participated in the inter-diplomatic dialogue which was held in Amman on 10 January to discuss common issues that affect the expatriate workers from human resources exporting countries.  

Problems concerning those who over stay their visas for several years, harassment by employers, non-renewal of resident permits by relevant sponsors, non-payment of salaries and status of illegitimate children born out of wed-lock were among the issues that were discussed at this forum lengthily.  

The dialogue was initiated by the Ambassador of Indonesia to Jordan, in which Ambassadors of the Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka participated in along with their representative officers.  

Ambassador Lafeer, contributing to the dialogue, offered to host the next discussion with a broader forum involving other stakeholders such as representatives of local NGOs that engaged in affairs of migrant workers, officers from the Ministry of Labour of Jordan, international organisations such as IOM and UNHCR. He requested the convener of the first dialogue to list out issues on priority basis and circulate them among the participants. It was decided to discuss these issues at the next proposed forum. 

The request was obliged by the Embassy of Indonesia. The next dialogue will take place in mid- February at the Embassy of Sri Lanka under the Chairmanship of Ambassador Lafeer.