COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
The Salvation Army spokesperson added that women often fall into two clear categories, ones
that have worked in the Middle-East and been abused by their employers, and the others who
work in the factory areas around Colombo and have affairs with married men. The Sri Lankan
government provides no state assistance or benefit payments for these women. However, I was
told that the women returning from the Middle East must report to the Sri Lankan Bureau for
Foreign Employment (SLBFE) on return to Colombo Airport. The SLBFE is part of the Sri
Lankan Ministry for Foreign Employment, Promotion & Welfare, and in cases where a woman
informs them that she is pregnant and requires assistance; they will contact the Salvation Army.
If accommodation is available, the SLBFE will pay the Salvation Army the Rs 1,500 (£8.50) per
month until the birth of the child. If they are unable to offer accommodation, the SLBFE will
contact Mother Teresa‘s Home.
There are several teenage mothers in the homes and also cases where engaged women have
become pregnant by men other than their fiancés. In these latter cases the Salvation Army does
their best to resolve the family matters between the woman and her fiancé to ensure the child
has a future. Without a named father there will be issues with registering the child‘s birth.
However, she added that only a few single mothers actually end up going back to their families,
especially those with illegitimate children, because the culture of Sri Lanka has not changed that
much over the years. With regard to women returning from the Middle East, Salvation Army
discuss matters with the parents/families of the mother and often the mother and baby are
accepted back into the family because the ―children look beautiful with their Middle-Eastern
features‖. We were told that the Haven carries out a lot of counselling with the women to
address their mentality. They try to encourage them to find employment or convince the father
of the child to marry the women for the sake of the child.
We asked the Salvation Army spokesperson whether she had encountered any cases from the
North and East of the country where women had become pregnant by military from either
government forces or LTTE. She stated that to date no such cases had been referred to the
Salvation Army.
The spokesperson told us that following the birth the mother is given one month to decide what
they want to do with the child. If no decision has been made after one month they counsel the
mother to make a quick decision as they normally require them to leave the centre and release
her bed for other admissions. If they decide to keep the child, the first step is for The Salvation
Army to contact the mother‘s family.
If they decide to have the child adopted, the Salvation Army will contact the Childcare Probation
Department to arrange adoption and actually deal with all of the legalities, including attending
Court. In their experience, only two out of ten mothers decide to have their babies adopted and
they are put up for adoption to local couples first. Failing that, the Department inform potential
foreign couples who have expressed an interest in adopting children from Sri Lanka.
The other alternative is to have the child entered into a children‘s home. This is often an option
advised to mothers under the age of 18, or who are jobless, as it allows the mother to maintain
contact should they attain a position where they can have the child back.
There was some academic research carried out on those persons seeking abortions in Sri
Lanka which suggested that pregnancy outside marriage was still relatively rare; see
(http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=51193)
244 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.