Sri Lanka will formulate a national Inbound Labour Migration Policy to regulate foreign workers entering the country for employment, after Cabinet noted that traditional policy attention has focused almost entirely on Sri Lankans seeking jobs abroad.
The Cabinet decision marks the first time a unified national framework will cover the admission, employment, supervision, protection and regulation of foreign nationals coming to work in Sri Lanka. Several sectors have been increasingly requesting recruitment of skilled, semi-skilled and specialist foreign workers, but no comprehensive policy currently governs the inflow.
At present, the regulation of foreign workers entering Sri Lanka is handled through fragmented administrative procedures across different institutions. Authorities said there is a clear need for a more systematic and centralised approach to manage inbound labour migration consistently.
The proposed policy is expected to establish a coordinated and transparent national framework covering admission criteria, employment conditions, oversight, worker protection and longer-term regulation. The Cabinet paper for the policy has been submitted, the government said.
The move comes as Sri Lanka’s economic recovery has revived corporate demand for specialist talent in construction, tourism, technology, healthcare and manufacturing. It also runs alongside the country’s long-standing emphasis on outbound labour migration, which generated over USD 1 billion in foreign worker remittances earlier this year and remains a major contributor to foreign currency inflows.
The new framework, once finalised, would give a single legal and administrative gateway for foreign workers and bring Sri Lanka’s regulatory architecture into closer alignment with regional peers that already operate centralised inbound-labour systems.
