Former Foreign Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam has been elected to the UN Committee on Migrant Workers with a resounding majority of votes at the election held in UN in New York this week .
He has been Srilanka ‘s Ambassador to US , High Commissioner to India as well as Ambassdor / Permanent Representative to UN in both New York and Geneva.
His commitment to stand up for rights of migrant workers arose from his first hand experience about the travails of migrant workers in Middle East during the first Gulf war in 90 s while serving at Srilanka Embassy in Saudi Arabia during which time he had rescued many SriLankan migrant workers from trouble. Since then he has had life long commitment to protect the right of migrant workers and served in this on previous occasions too .
Nomination of Prasad Kariyawasam for election to this committee is also yet another indication of Srilanka’s continued commitment to protect and promote right of migrant workers
