Speaker Karu Jayasuriya addresses the 138th Inter-Parliamentary Union session

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Speaker Karu Jayasuriya addressed the 138th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) session in Geneva Switzerland yesterday (March 25). The theme for the General debate was “Strengthening the global regime for migrants and refugees: the need for evidence-based policy solutions.” In his statement to the assembly Speaker Karu Jayasuriya highlighted a number of issues affecting migrants and refugees. The speaker also highlighted issues in Sri Lanka noting that foreign employment continues to be the primary foreign exchange earner for the country and that currently, there are 1.7 million Sri Lankan migrant workers in the Middle East. He said, “although Sri Lanka is the only South Asian country other than Bangladesh to have ratified the 'International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and members of their Families', implementation remains ineffective and inadequate.” Speaker Karu Jayasuriya also noted that Sri Lanka faces a problem of human smuggling and that It has become a lucrative business for human traffickers.