Israel will recruit Sri Lankan workers only through a government-to-government arrangement from 1 January 2027, ending the parallel channel that allowed licensed private agencies to place Sri Lankans in Israeli jobs. The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment has told applicants to stop paying agencies for Israeli work.
The decision was communicated to the Bureau by the Sri Lankan Embassy in Israel, the Daily Mirror reported on Thursday night. The existing programme run through licensed private foreign employment agencies will end on 31 December 2026.
What changes
Until now, Sri Lankans were recruited for Israeli jobs in the construction, industrial, commerce and services sectors through licensed private recruitment agencies. From January, that route closes and placements run state-to-state only.
The practical gap is that the replacement mechanism does not yet exist in public form. The SLBFE said the official details of the new arrangement — including recruitment quotas and selection procedures for 2027 — have not yet been announced.
The Bureau’s warning to job seekers
The SLBFE issued an unusually direct set of instructions to people hoping for Israeli work, and they are the operative part of the announcement:
- Do not pay money to any individual or licensed recruitment agency promising jobs in Israel.
- Do not take part in skills tests, interviews or other selection processes run by private agencies for Israeli jobs until the Bureau issues an official announcement.
- Treat promises from private agencies or individuals offering new Israeli opportunities — in the sectors named above or any other field — with caution.
- Rely only on official notices from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism and from the SLBFE itself.
The sequencing is what makes this matter. A closure announced in October that takes effect in January, with no published replacement procedure in between, leaves a window in which fees can be collected against a recruitment channel that is being shut down.
For those who have already paid
The Bureau said people who have already made legitimate payments for Israeli employment “need not be unduly concerned,” and that instructions on the next steps will be issued officially in due course.
Rather than asking those applicants to come forward individually, the SLBFE has requested licensed recruitment agencies to submit the details of applicants who have already made legitimate payments. Further action will be based on the information received, and the Bureau said such applicants do not need to submit separate individual requests at this stage.
Context
A government-managed channel to Israel is not new, and it has been running alongside the agency route. This desk reported in May on the departure of the 202nd SLBFE-managed batch — 47 workers, 42 of them women, all placed in caregiving — after Middle East flight disruption eased. What changes from January is that the sectors previously handled by private agencies come under the same state-to-state structure.
Not reported
The filing does not say what prompted the Israeli decision, how many Sri Lankans are currently employed in Israel under the agency route, or how many have paid fees for placements that have not yet happened. It does not state whether workers already placed through private agencies are affected, whether existing contracts and visas will be honoured past 31 December, or what becomes of applicants who have passed agency selection but not yet travelled. No date is given for the publication of the 2027 quotas and selection procedures.
The Daily Mirror is the only verified newsroom to have filed on the decision at the time of writing; a search of other verified outlets returned only earlier coverage of the existing Israel programmes, not this announcement.
Sources
- Israel to recruit Sri Lankan workers only through G-to-G scheme from 2027 — Daily Mirror, 29 October 2026
