Banners displayed that if they go back to Sri Lanka they will be killed! This was main news on TV & print media! That was terrible publicity for SL!

Mechanism to engage skilled expats needed - Immigration Lawyer
By Manjula FERNANDO

An established lawyer domiciled in Melbourne for the past 20 years Susantha Katugampala says skilled Sri Lankan expatriates holding key positions overseas need an effective mechanism to join in the post war development process of the country.


Susantha Katugampala
Pic: Chinthaka Kumarasinghe

With over ten years experience as an immigration lawyer, Katugampala says the LTTE fund-raising among Tamil diaspora is still very much active and the boat people are the latest form of the LTTE's propaganda war.

A lot of people were forced to leave the country due to lack of opportunities. They thought the future in Sri Lanka was uncertain and they could not possibly bring up their children in such an environment.

The highest proportion of the Sri Lankans expatriates left Sri Lanka during the last 25 years. Most Tamils after the 1983 riots.

Sri Lankan expatriates are in Australia, UK, US, Canada, New Zealand and the Middle East. Most of them have international qualifications, education and training to international standards.

Dave Whatmore is a Sri Lankan born cricket coach and Test cricket player in Australia. We won the World Cup with his guidance. More Dave Whatmores should be brought to Sri Lanka.

Expatriates can be important stakeholders in development. These migrants who play keyroles in their respective countries overseas are willing to work with the Government in its post war rebuilding effort. They want to give something back to their motherland and do not think in terms of revenue.

It is tantamount for the Government to create a conducive business environment for expatriates to return and invest here.

Q: Many of these Expats left Sri Lanka a long time back, why would they comeback now?

A: They need not live here. We need them to return as tourists, investors and resource personnel. They need to comeback with a positive vision for Sri Lanka.

Even if you become a citizen and hold a foreign passport, you are identified as a Sri Lankan in any country except for the United States. In the US this is not the case as the country boasts of a multi-cultural and multi ethnic community. There, regardless of your skin colour you are treated as a US citizen.

Some expats work with our missions overseas. People who maintain close contacts with the missions are either retired individuals or unemployed. Most of them do not represent the corporate sector or part of the mainstream.

It is important for people who are in the mainstream to participate in Lanka's development process. A lot of them are in the Corporate, Finance, Banking, Engineering and IT sectors. There are top Sri Lankan scientists in NASA.

And also second generation expatriates, who left Sri Lanka as children or who were born there. They need to preserve our identity and perhaps come back and contribute in the development process.

Q: What should be the mechanism to engage these people more productively?

A: We have the Ministry of External Affairs under whose purview the embassies and the High Commissions fall in.

Maintaining a high degree of interaction with expatriates via consular services is an important aspect. The confidence of expatriates in the Government should be high for them to venture on this risky voyage. There should be openness to accept any ethnicity.

Preservation of democracy, transparency, peace as well as political stability are key ingredients for confidence building.

Expatriates should realise that they have to work with the Government of the day.

Q: What is your take on the Tamil diaspora ?

A: Some actions by certain parts of the diaspora still damage the image of the country. We must understand the psychology behind this. They are disappointed. We must approach these people and make them understand that they are part of Sri Lanka.

Inspite of the wonderful work done by our missions we must admit this area still lags behind.

After the war we tried to keep our woes to ourselves. This sent wrong signals to the international community and diaspora. We should have exposed our problems. This would have created a better understanding of our difficult situation.

We need to create job opportunities.

We must convince the diaspora that if they delay helping the country it will take longer to restore lives in the North and East.

Q: You do counselling for Tamil migrants. What is the situation with regard to the issue of illegal immigrants which is a grave issue and a hot topic in Australia?

A: Yes I do counsel them because I am not a racist. But there are people among the Tamil and Sinhala communities who carry extreme sentiments.

Iillegal immigration to Australia is a big issue for both Governments. When I left Australia in late September some Tamil asylum seekers were holding a protest at a detention centre in Sydney.

Banners displayed that if they went back to Sri Lanka they will be killed. This was main news on television and print media. That was terrible publicity for the country.

Unfortunately there was no one to deny that there was no such situation back in Sri Lanka. It was very disappointing.

Everyone knows that Tamils are not killed in Sri Lanka; no one is targeted or harassed due to ethnicity or religion, unless there is some association with a terrorist organisation or engaged in illegal activity.

They have been coming out like this for the last two years. These campaigns are funded by the diaspora, to help the LTTE cause.

I do not believe these people would have paid for their boat trip to Australia. It would have cost them some Aus $20,000. An organisation would have paid in bulk. This is an ideal way of pushing their propaganda. Free but highly convincing publicity.

The boat that went to Canada with some 500 asylum seekers are into the same propaganda work.

This is pathetic for the Governments. While they sympathise with genuine asylum seekers as both Australia and Canada are signatories to the UN convention on refugees, these people are taking political advantage.

Legal and security measures should be taken to prevent these boats from reaching foreign shores. Most of these people are not going to leave from Sri Lanka. They may have left Sri Lanka already.

They may be in Thailand, Malaysia, India or Indonesia.

To counter the issue we must dig out the cause. The cause is certainly not harassment. It is that a proportion of diaspora is disappointed. We have to address this issue.

The extortion among the Tamil diaspora by LTTE is still taking place. It is not as intense as it was since the fear for LTTE is not so strong now after the killing of Prabhakaran.

We must tap those who contribute to this cause and shift their attention to the good cause. That is where diplomacy in different tiers comes in handy.

Q: The issue of boat people took centre stage at the Australian polls. Has it affected the overall attitude towards genuine Lankan migrants?

A: The Australian government is yet to lift the travel ban on Sri Lanka. A lot of Australians do travel to Sri Lanka.

There is no security issue now. But when people come down for investment, certain insurances will not cover their visits when a travel ban is in effect. As a result we stand to lose investors.

Genuine Sri Lankan migrants will always be welcome. But there is a change in receiving migrants at the moment, not only from Sri Lanka but from all countries since Australia is also trying to recover from the global financial crisis.

Australia had not been affected as much as the US where there were millions of job losses, nevertheless they have taken a very hard line on assessing and processing migrant applications.


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