Sri Lanka's Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition (MOH) this week
met with representatives from IOM, the World Health Organization
(WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Central
Bank and relevant ministries to initiate the development of a
migration health policy for Sri Lanka.

The meeting, which was funded by IOM's 1035 grant facility for
IOM Member States, discussed a migration health policy to address
outbound, inbound and internal migrant flows.

Outward flows include some 1.8 million Sri Lankans who are
employed abroad and play a critical role in the economy, sending
home over USD 3 billion a year in remittances. Other flows linked
to the end of the country's long running conflict in 2009 include
displaced people returning to their places of origin, returning
refugees from abroad and an expected rapid expansion of
tourism.

"Sri Lanka needs to formulate a migration health policy that
will make its migrants smarter, healthier and better protected.
While migration in itself is not a risk factor to health, the
circumstances surrounding the migration process increase
vulnerability and expose migrants to various health risks," says
IOM Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdiker.

The meeting was attended by Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, Sri
Lanka's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resource Development and
the outgoing Minister of Health, who is the current president of
the World Health Assembly – the governing body of the
WHO.

He was a key player in the adoption of the 61st World Health
Assembly Resolution on Health of Migrants, which calls on WHO
Member States to "promote migrant-inclusive health policies and to
train health professionals to deal with health-related issues
associated with population movements, among others."

Speaking to participants, he said that many of his constituents
migrated from their villages to the Middle East and he had seen
first-hand the difficulties and negative impacts that they faced
with regard to their health.

"Our migrant health policy must to be respected by
migrant-receiving countries in order to be effective. It needs to
offer strong guidelines for policies which can be adopted by other
countries," he said.

For more information please contact:

Stacey Winston

IOM Sri Lanka

E-mail: "mailto:swinston@iom.int">swinston@iom.int

or

Gaya Nagahawatta

E-mail: "mailto:gnagahawatta@iom.int">gnagahawatta@iom.int