One hundred new employees of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment received appointment letters on Tuesday in what the Ministry describes as the bureau’s first open recruitment in 40 years, Ada Derana reported.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Vijitha Herath presented the letters at the bureau. Promotions were also granted to a number of existing staff.
The appointments cover the posts of Information Technology Officer, Management Assistant, Driver and Office Assistant. Applications were invited through public advertisements from candidates meeting the required educational and vocational qualifications, and appointments followed interviews and a formal recruitment process.
Why “open” is the news
The bureau is a semi-government institution that, in the Ministry’s own words, “has in previous years provided employment opportunities on political grounds.” That the current intake was conducted on an open, advertised basis is the feature the Ministry singled out — and it is a statement about how the institution has been staffed for four decades as much as about the 100 people hired.
Posts were filled from applicants representing every district, and the new officers will be assigned to provincial and district offices across the island.
SLBFE Chairman Koshala Wickramasinghe said the appointments would be confirmed after a probationary period and a performance evaluation.
Remittances context
Herath said the foreign employment sector had played a key role in rebuilding the economy over the past two years, and that Sri Lanka received USD 8.2 billion in remittances in 2025.
He said ensuring the job security and welfare of the hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans working overseas, including in the Middle East, was the responsibility of the new officers, and urged them to work at changing public perceptions of the bureau, to listen to people’s concerns and to provide an efficient service.
The bureau has been under sustained scrutiny this year over its handling of migrant workers, including the Israel jobs portal and a string of recruitment scams. It is targeting 250,000 overseas placements in 2026.
Ada Derana was the only verified newsroom to carry the announcement. The Ministry did not say how many applications were received, how many posts were contested, or what the bureau’s total workforce now stands at.
