With COVID-19 disrupting travel, shutting borders, and redefining what is essential work, Pandemic Borders explores what international migration will look like after the pandemic, in this series titled #MigrantFutures
Sri Lanka is struggling to reintegrate the large numbers of migrant workers returning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the country is one of the few that has been conscious about the issue of reintegration and the Sub Policy and National Action Plan on Return and Reintegration of Migrant Workers introduced in 2015 is a testimony to this. However, the policy provides tools for return and reintegration during normal times and provides little support for the extraordinary circumstances experienced following the COVID-19 outbreak. So despite the success in implementing health related reintegration protocols, there are huge lapses in terms of socio-economic reintegration of returning migrant workers.
Healthy reintegration
Bringing migrants home during the pandemic involves unforeseen health concerns for everyone. As such, the first stage of the reintegration process involves evaluating the COVID-19 risk among returnees. Since mid-March 2020, all returning migrants have undergone a mandatory health-oriented reintegration protocol, with them subjected to a PCR test upon arrival. Healthy returnees are directed to a 14-day quarantine either in a state sponsored facility or at own cost in a hotel. Those who test positive are treated at the state’s expense in a government hospital. After that, returnees are cleared for socio-economic reintegration.
