The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will launch the LankaKonect mobile application on Tuesday, June 16, as a dedicated complaint-management platform for Sri Lankans living overseas, Newswire reported on Monday.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Arun Hemachandra described the initiative as a step towards more accessible, responsive and people-friendly consular services. The application is designed to streamline the handling of complaints and requests from Sri Lankans abroad, offering faster responses and improved transparency in dealings with embassies and high commissions.
The launch lands in the wake of two recent operational shocks affecting the diaspora’s consular interface with Colombo. The Foreign Ministry suspended attestations through the e-DAS digital system in May after technical defects emerged, and in the same month revamped the ministry website and its missions platform to improve service delivery from overseas posts.
Mr. Hemachandra, also the ministry voice on the June bilateral schedule with Bangladesh and the May Sri Lanka–EU business roundtable, has emerged as the government’s principal channel for diaspora-facing services this cycle.
Sri Lanka’s working-age expatriate population — concentrated in the Middle East, with 184,800 Sri Lankan-born residents in Australia recorded by the ABS in 2025 — generates roughly a quarter of national external earnings through remittances, making consular responsiveness a recurring political priority.
The ministry has not yet released details of the app’s operating-system availability, the categories of complaints it will accept, or the service-level commitments attached to the platform. Further information is expected at Tuesday’s launch.
Update — June 16: App formally launched by Minister Herath
Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Minister Vijith Herath formally launched the LankaKonect application at a Colombo ceremony on Tuesday, Ada Derana reported. The ministry said the platform was developed jointly with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), with technical support from Sri Lanka Telecom.
The application integrates complaint-management processes across the SLBFE, the ministry’s Consular Affairs Division and Sri Lanka’s overseas diplomatic missions, enabling tighter coordination on worker grievances and welfare concerns. Migrant workers can submit complaints, request assistance, track case progress and access essential information regardless of country of employment.
The ministry said the app — initially conceptualised purely as a complaint-management tool before being broadened into a wider digital service platform following consultations with development partners — is intended to serve Sri Lankans employed, studying or residing abroad. It is available free of charge on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
EconomyNext, reporting on the launch early Wednesday, framed the platform as addressing “a gap in migrant worker protection” by digitally integrating SLBFE, the Consular Affairs Division and Sri Lanka’s overseas missions into a single complaint and case-tracking flow. The ministry described the design as enabling “more timely, efficient, and coordinated responses to complaints and welfare concerns raised by Sri Lankan migrant workers overseas.”
Sources: Newswire — Govt to launch LankaKonect complaint platform for overseas Sri Lankans | Ada Derana — Sri Lanka unveils digital complaint management app for migrant workers | EconomyNext — Sri Lanka launches LankaKonect app to support migrant workers globally.
