BY Dinitha Rathnayake   More than 194,801 Sri Lankans have left the island for foreign employment so far this year, said the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), and the Government intends to secure a total of 300,000 new jobs in foreign countries in 2022. Speaking to The Morning yesterday (23) SLBFE General Manager D.D.P. Senanayake said, “The majority left for jobs in the Middle East. We are promoting foreign employment by job fairs at the moment and, hopefully, we will be able to achieve our target for this year.” Attention is also being paid to sending State sector officers for employment and referral overseas, with the SLBFE already conducting the relevant registrations. These matters came to light at a meeting that Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake had with State officials regarding improving foreign exchange earnings and foreign employment for public servants. Meanwhile, according to the Department of Immigration and Emigration, the total number of passports issued from 1 January until August this year is 560,292. A total of 282,672 had been travel documents to all countries, 229 had been official travel documents, and 54 had been diplomatic travel documents. Meanwhile, during the period from 1 January 2021 to 28 October 2021, a total of 234,605 travel documents had been issued by the department according to the yearly analysis of the issued travel documents, thus showing an increase from the figure for the same during the same period in the previous year (2020). The majority had been obtained under the one-day service while the rest were under the normal service. Additionally, emergency certificates too had been obtained.