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Govt. seeks UN, Indian assistance to evacuate Lankans from Yemen
View(s):Government has sought the assistance of the United Nations and the Indian Embassy in Yemen to evacuate some 120 all-male Sri Lankans caught up in the bloody civil war there, senior officials said yesterday.
They told the Sunday Times that the Lankans, mostly expatriate workers in the skilled higher category sector, were presently being housed at a location close to the Indian Mission in the capital Sanaa, prior to being moved out across the border to neighbouring Oman.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith Perera said that there were no casualties reported among the Sri Lankans who had taken up employment there long before the fighting started.
He said the Lankan Mission in Oman had been tasked to coordinate evacuation efforts and instructed to keep Colombo informed on developments from time to time.
The latest reports suggest that the militants were being neutralised by constant air raids conducted by a coalition of Arab and Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia.
“At the moment we are closely monitoring the situation and the problem appears to be the movement by road owing to the volatile situation. However, every effort will be made at the very earliest to evacuate the Sri Lankans to Oman, either by road or sea, depending on the availability of safe and proper transport”, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Oman, M.L.A Haleem told the Sunday Times via telephone from Muscat.
He also endorsed that there were no reports of casualties among the Sri Lankans and that all of them had been accounted for, as most of them were employed in the capital and immediate suburbs.
According to SLFEB records, the bulk of those in Yemen were from areas in Kandana, Gampaha, Dompe, Piliyandala, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya.- L.B.