{
  "id": 247128,
  "title": "Sajith highlights foreign employment ‘fraud’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/07/sajith-highlights-foreign-employment-fraud",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-07T00:05:28.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Island Sri Lanka",
    "slug": "the-island-sri-lanka",
    "url": "http://island.lk/sajith-highlights-foreign-employment-fraud/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa met with a group of job-seeking youth in Israel during a peaceful protest, expressing concerns over irregularities in the overseas recruitment process. He highlighted that thousands of Sri Lankan youth aspire to work abroad to support their families, contributing significantly to the country's foreign exchange earnings and economy. Referring to the 2023 bilateral labour agreement between Sri Lanka and Israel, Premadasa alleged that the agreed recruitment mechanism had been altered, with the ratio of government to private agency recruitment reversed. He claimed that job seekers recruited through government channels paid around Rs. 400,000, whereas those through private agencies paid about Rs. 4.5 million, with private agencies earning US$ 5,000 per worker. Premadasa called for the restoration of the original recruitment ratio and urged the government to negotiate with Israeli authorities to expand official recruitment channels, reducing the financial burden on workers.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}