Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) and Female Domestic Workers in the Middle East

Abstract

Females heading to the Middle East as domestic workers are an important part of labour migrants from Sri Lanka. Female domestic workers are highly vulnerable to adverse working or living conditions in the Middle East region. As such, the vulnerability of female domestic workers in the Middle East region is an important concern of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment’s mediation as a government shield is the best opportunity to reconciling the problems in the Middle East. With this concern, main objectives of this study are; identify the vulnerable women who are working as domestic workers in the Middle East region and, understand the impact of SLBFE and their role as a government bureau. The vision of SLBFE is Sri Lanka to be the best choice for competent human resources for overseas market. For that purpose, the SLBFE providing facilities and welfare services for those female workers and for their families are highly appreciated. The research has used secondary data which are qualitative and have been drawn from scholarly journals in order to ensure its reliability and for a balanced and profound analysis. This paper makes an important contribution to the female domestic workers vulnerabilities like physical harassment, mental harassment, living facilities, labour protection, rights and violation of contract which are having in Middle East and the role of SLBFE in solving those vulnerabilities. The SLBFE not only act as a mediator in solving those vulnerabilities. The SLBFE provided welfare services to the female domestic workers. Moreover, this study included the relation between the female domestic workers vulnerabilities and the services provided by the SLBFE for those female workers welfare benefits. The study finds conclusive evidence on the vulnerability of female domestic workers in Middle East, and the facilities which are made to discriminate those vulnerabilities as a government bureau.