Sri Lanka to open a fully-fledged embassy in Bahrain
View(s):Sri Lanka will set up its first full diplomatic mission in Bahrain next month to serve the country’s expatriate community numbering over 20,000 there, a senior foreign ministry official said.
Director General/ Public Communications of the Foreign Ministry, Rodney Perera told the Business Times that the approval for the mission location will be given soon, as a Sri Lankan embassy in Bahrain was a long felt need.
It would be located opposite the Japanese Embassy in Manama, he added.
Currently mobile consular services in Bahrain are being carried out with the assistance of diplomats from the Sri Lankan Embassy in Kuwait.
Counseling services are offered at the Sri Lanka Club in Bahrain on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays
However, the large number of Sri Lankan expatriates in that country and the volume of the required services meant that a full diplomatic mission was needed to address all the issues, mainly legal matters related to the labour sector, Foreign Ministry sources said.
A community welfare officer, labour attaché and other staff will be deployed to provide consular and other services at the new mission, they revealed. The setting up of an embassy in Bahrain came at the request of Sri Lankan expatriates to the President saying that it is an urgently felt need. In a letter addressed to the President they noted that India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines have embassies in Manama to support their expatriate citizens although their numbers are much less compared to Sri Lankans.
They also pointed out that the absence of an embassy in Bahrain was causing a loss to Sri Lanka in economic terms since its traditional exports such as tea arrive there only through third parties.
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