Six officials, including the Additional General Manager of the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau, have been suspended with immediate effect over a massive fraud involving the illegal deployment of women for foreign employment without mandatory training.
A spokesperson for the Bureau told media today (5 May 2025) that the suspensions were implemented following an internal investigation. The matter has also been forwarded to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) for further inquiry.
Recent media reports revealed a large-scale financial scam amounting to approximately Rs. 2.5 billion, in which domestic workers were allowed to travel abroad without completing the compulsory pre-departure training. The issue was also taken up during a recent session of the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE).
According to preliminary findings, between 2022 and August 2024, nearly 35,000 women had been sent overseas under these irregular practices. It is alleged that between Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 140,000 was fraudulently taken from each woman under the guise of processing fees.
In some cases, women who had never previously worked abroad were falsely documented as experienced workers using forged certificates, further deepening the fraudulent activity.
The spokesperson stated that many of these women, sent abroad without proper training, were exposed to hazardous work environments and suffered various forms of abuse and exploitation. Authorities have now begun compiling all evidence related to this financial and procedural misconduct to submit to CIABOC.
