Sri Lankan Legal Version of Migrant Workers’ Rights: How It is and How It shall be

Abstract

‘Migrant workers’ are generally defined as people who leave their home country in search of employment. It is known that the largest source of income in Sri Lanka is foreign employment. Protection of the migrant becomes an integral need in this context. With the recent unpleasant tragedies occurred to migrants of Sri Lanka pose the question of actual protection of rights and its compatibility with the international standards. On the other hand protection of migrant worker is linked to the protection of families of the migrant worker. Thus the dependants, especially children of the migrants have the direct effect on deprivation of their rights and vice-versa. Therefore this social phenomenon enables the author to seek the legal protection of the migrant worker and its extent. Thereby this paper objects to compare the current domestic and international context on migrant workers’ rights and to identify the key areas for improvement. The black letter and international and comparative legal research approaches were followed to analyze data. Related enactments and international standards as primary sources and journal articles, research publications and statistics published by authorities as secondary sources would be utilized in this research to recommend suitable legal reforms.