08/10/2011
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Talking Economics
Over 4,000 youth gathered along Havelock Road near the Police Field Force Headquarters on Monday to apply for jobs in South Korea, following an announcement by the government under a bilateral foreign employment scheme with South Korea; an arrangement that could potentially provide employment in Korea to thousands of Sri Lankans annually. This centre in Colombo was one of 29 centres islandwide set up by the Ministry of Foreign Employment that are distributing applications for Korean employment (particularly language tests), and attracted youth from various districts who had queued since afternoon the previous day. While registration of applicants began at around 8am, by 11.15am the officials along with Police support, announced to those queued that the centre is now closed as the maximum number of 3,500 applicants had been registered. Just prior to this, and the slight tension that ensued following the announcement, IPS researchers conducted a snap survey of a sample of 41 youth in the queue, to get some insight into their profile, education level, employment status, and reasons for seeking migrant work in South Korea. This article discusses the key findings, supplemented by background information on youth unemployment and foreign employment migration from current research by the IPS.
05/13/2011
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IRIN
JAFFNA, 13 May 2011 (IRIN) - Peace dividends have yet to reach thousands of unemployed graduates returning to Sri Lanka's northernmost, conflict-affected Jaffna District.
03/11/2011
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IRIN
COLOMBO, 11 March 2011 (IRIN) - As the Sri Lankan government launches a cash-for-work programme in areas hit by recent flooding, following similar schemes in the former conflict areas in the north, experts warn of potential pitfalls of such schemes.
03/05/2011
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Lanka Business Online
Mar 05, 2011 (LBO) - A Sri Lankan employment network is encouraging businesses to give jobs to over 15,000 youth in the former northern war zone who are seeking work and help improve ethnic relations in the country.
09/10/2010
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Hindustan Times
The US has suspended the training of 3000 youth from the war-ravaged northern Lankan districts in outsourcing skills. The US Agency for International Development (USAID), a government agency that provides humanitarian and economic aid worldwide, suspended the programme apparently to ensure that the
09/05/2010
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Sunday Times
The continued intrusion of Indian fishermen into Sri Lankan territorial waters has become an impediment to fishermen in the north who are now enjoying unrestricted access to the seas in the area after nearly three decades.
09/01/2010
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AFP
TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka — Fishermen in the Sri Lankan port of Trincomalee hoped the end of the island's civil war would bring prosperity, but dynamite and corruption now threaten their livelihoods.
09/01/2010
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Himal Southasian
S Thavaratnam, chairman of the Jaffna District Fishermen’s Cooperative Society Unions Federation, played a significant role in unionising fishermen in northern Sri Lanka, starting in the mid-1970s. At that time, small unions were established in every fishing village across the Northern Province. As the civil war took hold, however, communication across villages became difficult and the federation was disrupted, and the unions in the Jaffna District functioned as a smaller federation. Thavaratnam became the president of that federation in 1995. He recently spoke with Himal contributing editor Ahilan Kadirgamar, and explained the impact of the civil war on the fishing industry, the problem of South Indian trawlers encroaching on Sri Lankan waters, and the need for more advanced boats. Translated from the Tamil.
07/15/2010
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Women's ENews
Four hundred women who once fought for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam left rehabilitations camps in the northern district of Vavuniya last month and made the seven-hour trip south to a hostel here set up for them by a major apparel exporter.
07/06/2010
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Daily Mirror
Around 300 unemployed young men and women in the Jaffna peninsula are to receive employment openings in the garment industry immediately, the army headquarters sources said.