Sri Lanka has repatriated over 40,000 Sri Lankans, including 17,861 migrant workers from the Middle Eastern alone during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena on Wednesday (11) at the Launch of the Sri Lanka Chapter of the United Nations Global Network on Migration.
With the onset of COVID Pandemic, the Government of Sri Lanka has taken immediate measures to address the welfare needs of Sri Lanka’s migrant population, he said.
During the first wave of the pandemic early this year Sri Lanka, launched the ‘Contact Sri Lanka’ web portal to gather empirical data on the immediate requirements of these workers, and to guide and provide information and to assist in emergencies.
“We currently have over 98,000 Sri Lankans registered in this database across the Middle East, Southern Europe and to the Far East, Malaysia, Korea and Japan,” said the Foreign Minister.
The Government of Sri Lanka also took immediate steps to release emergency funds to attend to the basic needs of vulnerable migrants, airlift dry rations to selected destinations, provide temporary shelter and accommodation and facilitate RT-PCR testing and some of our missions, for example in countries such as Jordan and Qatar have been able to negotiate the jobs or alternative employment opportunities for those who lost their employment due to COVID – 19, he added.
SOURCE: News1st
