Former Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment Manusha Nanayakkara said that the country is in danger of losing thousands of jobs with E8 category visas in South Korea, which he had worked hard to obtain during his tenure as the Minister of Labor and Foreign Employment, due to the inefficiency of some officials of the Foreign Service Bureau and the current government. .
Commenting on this at a public meeting held in Galle, he commented at length on how he got Korean jobs and the current situation.
”I saw another news published these days that Korea’s job quota is in danger. It was said about this that this news was published in connection with seasonal jobs in Korea. I would like to say that Korea only recruited workers for these seasonal jobs from a limited number of countries. At that time, I personally went to Korea and made a request to give us too this E8 visa category.
When I went to Korea, I went to a large number of city councils day and night and personally requested that that visa category be given to us as well. Then even those mayors said that they would give us a chance because a Sri Lankan minister had come to us
I made a request to the Korean ambassador in Sri Lanka. We spoke with many people who came to Sri Lanka in conjunction with the Busan festival. As a result of several discussions, they agreed to give us the E8 visa category. It is implemented by the states and municipalities. .
According to the law of that country, the transaction should have been done between the municipalities. But according to our 13th constitution, neither a city council nor a provincial council of our country can do any business directly with foreign countries. Finally, they decided to listen to our request and work together with the Foreign Employment Bureau.
But due to the actions of some officials of the Foreign Employment Bureau two to three weeks before the election, it was not finally implemented. I request Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya not to break the dreams of the youth,” he said.