He said that he would also ensure that all services and activities of the SLFEB will be decentralized without delay through the Batticaloa office which would be elevated gradually to function as the main centre of the bureau for the people in the Eastern Province.

Information Secretary (Media) to the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion Lalith Bopitiya who took the Colombo based journalists on a guided tour to Batticaloa following the liberation of the Eastern Province from the LTTE was also present.

Speaking at the ceremonial inauguration of the first Batticaloa office opposite the Coop Inn on the Trincomalee road in Batticaloa last Friday, he said that this Regional Branch opened under the ‘Nagenahira Navodaya’ program would be the stepping stone towards development of human resources in the Eastern Provincel. He also said that this would cater to special requirements of the migrant labour market.

Notable absentees were Senior Presidential advisor and MP Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Foreign Employment Promotion Keheliya Rambukkella and Batticaloa District MP and Minister of Disaster Relief Services Ameer Ali whose pictures were displayed prominently on posters pasted throughout Batticaloa.

The absence of these Ministers did not disappoint dozens of Journalists belonging to the National Media who had travelled all the way from Colombo as they were kept entertained by the presence of Minister of National Integration Vinayagamurthy Mralidharan, Chief Minister Of the Eastern Province Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan who provided answers to many current political topics.

Also present were S.Maamangarajah Secretary to the Chief Minister and Additional District Secretary of Batticaloa Mrs. R. Ketheeswaran.

Chairman Ranawaka said that he hoped to construct the new Regional Headquarters of the SLFEB in the Eastern Province with the support and advise of Minister Muralidharan and Chief Minister Chandrakanthan

He also said that the headquarters building would be constructed on a land belonging to the State with all facilities so that all the training could be carried out at the headquarters itself.

The Chairman said that initially the bureau would focus its attention in providing solutions to grievances and problems faced by prospective migrant workers and their immediate families.

The Bureau would also focus its attention on creating awareness among the people in the rural backwoods of the district by carrying out a door to door campaign to inform them and give an insight into the opportunities available, skills required and for what jobs one would have to pay and what were available free of charge and on salaries paid to prospective migrant workers.

The main aim of this house to house program is to create an awareness among the people and to halt the frauds and malpractices committed by crooked sub agents who cheat unsuspecting prospective migrant workers by inducing them to part with their money .

"We hope to seek the support and assistance of the District Secretaries, Divisional Secretaries and Grama Niladharis to take our message to the people in the interior areas of the district," he said.

According to reports received from Police sources there have been a spate of complaints from prospective job seekers that they have been stranded after paying large sums of money to unscrupulous job agents who had gone missing.

This centre would also ease the need for prospective migrant workers to travel to far away places as Colombo for training as we would provide facilities for training in the district itself.

The main responsibility of taking this message to the rural masses lies with all Bureau officials in the centre and they should take up the challenge and prove themselves that they can create the necessary awareness among the people, he said.

"We have been able to obtain the support and advise of other Ministries in providing the skills training, we hope to commence an accelerated program to send these persons who have the required skills certification abroad," he said.

"In this direction we have decided to obtain the support of non Govermental agencies.

"We hope to seek the advice and support of some of the other Ministries that provide skills training especially request the Ministry of Vocational Training and Vocational Training Authority to increase opportunities for training more and more youths in skills and to obtain certification required for obtaining employment abroad," he said.

"In the past when taking forward the activities of the Bureau as in the East we were able to speak to some of these youths in the IDP camps in the North a majority of them at the time of expressed that they would wish to migrate for employment," the Chairman said.

"Some face problems when recruiting certain persons who do not possess the required skills but do not have certification that is recognized by the countries offering employment.

We have proposed to work in close coordination with the vocational Training Authority to test that a person has the required skills and provide certification if any prospective migrant worker may have a problem,we hope to correct it," he said.

"We hope to tailor special programs different to what we practice in other parts of the country."

At the outset the Chairman said that he would have to implement special programs at an accelerated pace if he was to bring the youths of these districts on par with the other districts in the country.