The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 8.7 requires states to take immediate measures to eradicate forced labour and end modern slavery, human trafficking and prohibit and eliminate worse forms of child labour including the recruitment and use of child soldiers and end child labour in all its forms by 2025.

 Sri Lanka is a pathfinder country under the multi stakeholder platform which coordinates implementation of SDG Target 8.7. Therefore, Sri Lanka has to accelerate action to eliminate slavery, trafficking and child labour in all its forms. Ending his visit in Sri Lanka, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Tomoya Obokata revealed key findings on unregulated sectors of employment in Sri Lanka. The Special Rapporteur will present a comprehensive report of his visit at the 51st Session of the Human Rights Council to be held in September 2022. 

Considerable progress 

“One positive aspect I discovered in my mission is that Sri Lanka is a pathfinder country and this demonstrates its commitment to tackle forced labour, slavery, servitude and particularly child labour, which is one of the areas the government is making enormous progress,” opined Obokata. “I came across a pilot project titled Child Labour Free Zone initiated in the Ratnapura district in 2013. The government has worked with parents, teachers, trade unions and businesses and have come up with a Total Child Development Plan. The government has also raised the minimum age of work from 14-16 and has updated its list of so-called hazardous work prohibiting children to work in these sectors till they reach 18. One of the contentious issues is domestic work where children work in private homes. Other sectors include garments and plantation sector. But the domestic work sector has been least regulated. Minimum wage, extended working hours, access to benefits need to be looked into and the government has included domestic work under the hazardous work list.”

" One positive aspect I discovered in my mission is that Sri Lanka is a pathfinder country and this demonstrates its commitment to tackle forced labour, slavery, servitude and particularly child labour, which is one of the areas the government is making enormous progress"

He further said that the government has also upgraded the Penal Code to include human trafficking and combat organized crime while complying with international standards. “Issues such as microfinancing particularly affect women in rural areas where women take loans to sustain themselves. These companies charge high interests such as 20-30%. The government is taking measures to tighten regulations for microfinancing. The other issue is migration for employment. There are neighboring countries such as Thailand, Philippines that also have migrants but there’s regulation. Returnees claim they have been exploited for domestic work but these countries have a primary obligation to protect these workers and the Sri Lankan government is equally responsible for their nationals and make sure that they are being protected and are integrated by these countries. Sometimes they are being asked for sexual favors and are trafficked to different parts of the world.”

“I’m also encouraged by the proactive and strong presence of trade unions working for the rights of people. They are fighting for the rights of workers. Some civil society organizations are keen to tackle issues of worker rights, slavery and forced labour.”

Tomoya Obokata - United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery 

1% of children engaged in child labour 

However, he said that he has also identified number of areas that need to be addressed in order to prevent and suppress forced labour, slavery, servitude and most importantly protect victims of these practices. “Contemporary forms of labour continue to exist in this country. According to the government 1% of children are engaged in child labour which may not be as many but many of them are in hazardous occupations. This has been exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemic because of the closure of schools over the past 18 months. Children had limited access to online education and I visited rural areas where children had no access to Internet. While at home they were encouraged by parents to engage in domestic work, hospitality and other areas.”
 “As such I believe that child labour free zone project should be introduced to the rest of the country to ensure that children are truly free from child labour,” he added.

" I’m also encouraged by the proactive and strong presence of trade unions working for the rights of people. They are fighting for the rights of workers. Some civil society organizations are keen to tackle issues of worker rights, slavery and forced labour"

Gender discrimination in the informal sector 

His observations further revealed that women and girls are disproportionately affected by contemporary forms of slavery which is connected to significant levels of gender inequality, patriarchal attitudes and intercepted forms of discrimination. “Certain sectors such as the plantation sector, domestic work garment factories many of which are characterized by demanding working conditions are predominantly occupied by women, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse.”

“In the plantations women have to work twice as long than men to earn a daily wage of Rs. 1,000. They have a daily target where women have to pluck 18-20kg of tea leaves and if they do not meet the norm, their wages are deducted. Targets are an enormous pressure on women especially in the garment sector and if they do not meet targets women are unnecessarily penalized. Microfinancing, women are easy prey and they provide information in English but women don’t understand what’s in them. However, they have to sign it and in order to pay debts they engage in sex work and sometimes they send children for sex work. I find this extremely disturbing. Sometimes these microfinancing companies are reportedly connected to sub-recruitment agents who facilitate migration for employment abroad, including countries in the Middle East. Hence there’s a vicious cycle of exploitation used by private entities,” he emphasized.

The Rapporteur has therefore made a series of recommendations to deal with microfinancing companies and he has been informed that a legislative amendment is being introduced by the government to put a system in place to regulate microfinancing companies. 

Retired workers returning to work 

He further shed light on retired workers who have a tendency to return to work as they do not have access to their pension. “In the plantation sector for example a majority of workers have reached the age of 50. Young people tend to work outside the plantation sector. As such older workers they have to perform physically challenging jobs on a daily basis, working 8-10 hours without sufficient access to healthcare and social protection and economic assistance without being granted paid, sick or annual leave. There’s also a lack of access to retirement funds such as the Employee Trust Fund, Employee Provident Fund and gratuity which are supposed to be paid after workers reach the age of 60. Some workers had had no access to these funds for over 15 years. As a result this has forced some retired persons to return to work as they have no choice. In raising this issue with relevant authorities, a long backlog of EPF and ETF payments in state managed plantations has been acknowledge and I was reassured that this situation would be addressed in the near future.”

" In the plantations women have to work twice as long than men to earn a daily wage of Rs. 1,000. They have a daily target where women have to pluck 18-20kg of tea leaves and if they do not meet the norm, their wages are deducted. Targets are an enormous pressure on women especially in the garment sector and if they do not meet targets women are unnecessarily penalized"

Discrimination based on ethnicity

Obokata has visited several areas in the country and he made a special mention about living conditions of people in the plantation sector. “I was quite distressed to see 5-10 people stuck in a tiny space. I recommended the government to do something about it. I also do believe that there are ethnic dimensions where most workers are Tamil and factors such as ethnicity, race, gender lead to discrimination and increased risk of contemporary forms of labour. If they do not have access to proper education that means they do not have access to decent work.  So, many of them end up doing work in the informal sector which isn’t properly regulated.”
The rapporteur also shed light on the language disparity where most Tamil workers are unable to report instances of abuses to authorities as the Police officers in the area only speak Sinhala and therefore the complainants are forced to file complaints in Sinhala. “In the Northern Province for instance, many belonging to oppressed castes are unable to obtain a suitable land to start an agricultural business and apart from that, access to water and irrigation is limited,” he added.

Migrant workers 

When talking about migrant workers the existing migration framework requires all individuals intending to migrate abroad to register with the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau and pay a fee of Rs. 17,500. “If you’re registered, there’s an insurance scheme, pre-departure briefing and training and a reintegration programme. But in some cases, these companies charge fees, exploit migrant workers but if they have any issues in those countries, they cannot reach the Embassy as they haven’t been registered and an increasing number of workers face this situation.”

Key recommendations 

He further noted the lack of updated and disaggregated data on contemporary forms of slavery and related practices in the country, lack of proper labour inspections due to alleged collusion between inspectors and businesses, continued payment of low wages without taking inflation into consideration, domestic workers being paid as little as Rs. 500 per day which demonstrates the high degree of exploitation of women and girls, inability to establish the extent to which the government actively promotes due diligence on the part of businesses in line with UN Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights, limitations in accessing justice and remedies as victims of labour exploitation do not have access to information.
The Rapporteur therefore recommends the Sri Lankan government to formalize domestic work and other sectors which remain in the informal economy by including them in the labour law, end worst forms of child labour by 2025, ensure that children are kept in school and that they have access to quality education without discrimination, investigate the conduct of microfinancing companies and ensure access to affordable credit channeled through thrift societies, cooperative and rural development bank, address the militarization of the workforce, decriminalizing sex work, guaranties civic space for civil society Organisation, establishing a one-stop-shop for migrant workers and their families to raise awareness on potential risks of labour exploitation in destination countries among others.