The Sunday Times: Sri Lanka: Sunday, March 18, 2018.
The Business
Times (BT) on Friday won an important ruling by the Right to Information (RTI)
Commission against a refusal of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment
(SLBFE) to release information on MOUs or bilateral agreements with three
countries.
When the
matter came on Friday, the Commission was informed that BT Editor (Feizal
Samath) had been informed on March 15 by the SLBFE on its willingness to
release this information. Based on that, the Commission concluded the appeal
hearing. The request for details of MOUs and/or bilateral agreements with the
governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait pertaining to Sri Lankan migrant
workers was first made on July 3, 2107, which was then refused by the SLBFE
saying releasing this information would “seriously prejudice Sri Lanka’s
relations with any state.” The BT appealed to the same agency, as per RTI
rules, and again it was refused. The BT, as per rules, filed an appeal with the
RTI Commission stating that these are matters of public importance and migrant
workers need to know what is in these agreements that are supposedly ensuring
their protection. At the appeal hearing on February 6, the SLBFE cited the same
reasons (as earlier) for their refusal. However the Commission took the view
that these are matters of considerable public interest and concerning the
rights of Sri Lankan citizens who work in those countries. “As such there is no
serious prejudice caused to any parties to the agreements,” the Commission said
in its order. Thereafter the SLBFE was directed to release the information to
the appellant as requested.
However when
the matter came up on February 23, the SLBFE took the position that it can
release only MOUs that the bureau has signed and not those entered into by the
Ministry of Foreign Employment. All three MOUs that were requested had been
signed by the Ministry, which meant that no information could be released to
the appellant.
But the
Commission said: “At the previous hearing the PA (public authority) was clearly
informed of the fact that the information requested by the appellant related to
public documents, therefore there is no third party involved. In these
circumstances the Commission directs the PA to provide the requested
information to the appellant within two weeks.”
On March 15,
the BT Editor was informed by letter that the SLBFE is willing to release the
information as requested in the appeal.
For decades,
the SLBFE has refused to release this information which would have helped the
public, workers, the media and migrant worker interest groups to understand
what kind of protection mechanism, in consultation with labour-receiving
country governments, is provided for departing workers.
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