In the first four months of this year alone, migrant workers have sent 2.079 billion US dollars through the banking system, and in April alone, they have sent 543.8 million dollars.
When compared with the first four months of last year, the amount of foreign remittances sent by expatriate workers in the first four months of this year has increased by 11.4%. When compared with the month of April last year, the amount of foreign remittances received by the country increased by 19.7% in April this year alone.
After Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara took over the ministry, so far 10,807 billion US dollars have been sent to the country by foreign workers. By the time he took over the ministry, the monthly amount of foreign exchange sent by expatriate workers had dropped to 200 million US dollars. At that time, there was a shortage of essential goods such as fuel and medicines in the country and the situation led to the breakdown of people’s lives.
Accordingly, the minister appealed to be a “shareholder of 500 million dollars” to send money legally through the banking system for the importation of essential goods needed by the country by eliminating the existing oil queues, gas queues and the shortage of medicines, and was encouraged to send money in this way.
Measures such as the introduction of electric vehicle import licenses for
migrant workers who legally send money to the country, introduction of housing and multi-purpose loan proposals, and the introduction of a special portal for expatriate workers at the airport called ”Hope Gate” were taken for this purpose.