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28th May 2021 21:03:46 Hours

INCREASED NUMBERS OF MIDDLE EAST EXPATRIATES BROUGHT DOWN DURING LAST 24 HOURS

Sri Lanka Army troops with health workers and other stakeholders during small hours on Friday (15), consequent upon the expansion of government-managed Quarantine Centres (QCs), accepted a record total of 645 Middle East-based Sri Lankan immigrants, majority being women on arrival at the Katunayake International Airport and directed them to respective QCs using state transport facilities in the past few hours, the airport authorities confirmed. On a Presidential directive, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Health and the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) jointly and closely coordinated and implemented the repatriation of those stranded Middle East workforce after the government decided to expedite the process and increase the numbers of flights for the purpose of repatriating. Accordingly, those 645 immigrants from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Oman, the Maldives and Dubai have now arrived in the island. Of them, 288 were from Oman and 203 were among remained stranded or confined to respective COVID-19 detention centres or were detained for multiple reasons, such as loss of jobs, expiry of valid visas, displacements, etc. On Wednesday (13), another 268 Sri Lankan workers from Middle East countries were repatriated to Sri Lanka. They all were to government-run Quarantine Centers (QCs), managed by tri-services upon their arrival after formalities at the airport. General Shavendra Silva, Head of the NOCPCO, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army while closely monitoring those movements has taken speedy measures to transport all of them to respective QCs. A few comments, made by them at the airport are as follows: