Russia has begun recruiting skilled Sri Lankan workers following a historic agreement between the two countries, a senior official of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) said yesterday.
He said that 58 factory workers had already left the country for the Russian Federation after they were selected by the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Agency (SLFEA). The batch of 58 workers left Sri Lanka on August 2 to take up employment at two renowned textile manufacturing plants in Nizhny Novgorod.
Discussions are also under way between the Sri Lankan Mission in Moscow and regional Government authorities in Nizhny Novgorod to recruit 700 more skilled Sri Lankan seamstresses for that region, he said.He said that the agreement was purely between the two Governments.
The Sri Lankan Embassy, in liaison with the relevant authorities, is devising a mechanism to create more employment opportunities for Sri Lankan skilled migrant workers in the Russian Federation and other countries of accreditation, under a number of technical categories, the official said. “The Russian Federation is currently the host country for hundreds of Sri Lankan students and others but this is the first time it has decided to recruit workers from this country despite the ongoing war with Ukraine,” the official added.