News
Foreign Ministry seeks additional funds from Treasury to assist Lankans stranded overseas
The Foreign Ministry has sought an additional allocation from the Treasury to meet the increasing needs of Sri Lankans stranded overseas amidst the COVID-19 crisis.
A statement by the Foreign Relations Ministry said the request had been made mainly to increase the efforts of the distribution of dry rations by the missions.
The source said Sri Lankan missions across the world had received about Rs.500,000 per mission based on their relative needs to cover expenses such as food, basic medicine, accommodation and internal transport. This figure may be increased depending on the progression of the situation.
The Ministry is also expected to begin repatriation operations of Lankan students stranded across South Asian countries on Tuesday.
More than 3000 people comprising students, armed forces personnel and government servants engaged in short training will be brought back from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage, Additional Secretary to the President for Foreign Relations, said authorities were planning to open the arrival section of BIA for students next week. “Every flight is a special flight,” he said adding that students and short-term visa holders respectively would be given priority. The exact number of Lankans who had requested repatriation is still not know,” Admiral Prof. Colombage said adding, “What we do know is that the number of people who are trying to come back will be quite large,” he said.
Missions abroad have also reported that the decision made by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment to expand resource access to migrant workers irrespective of their registration status had been extremely helpful. The resources from the Worker’s Welfare Fund had previously only been available to those registered with the Bureau.
The statement which was released after a meeting between Foreign Ministry officials and Foreign stakeholders on Wednesday also mentioned that embassy officials were monitoring the efforts of medical assistance being given to Sri Lankans suspected of contracting COVID-19 abroad.
Non-governmental assistance from organizations such as the International Organization for Migration and the Red Crescent Society were also appreciated. The Ministry has made representations seeking additional support for the Sri Lanka Missions to the IOM and International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) Headquarters in Geneva through the Sri Lanka Permanent Mission in Geneva and their Heads of Agency in Sri Lanka.
Rigorous data collection efforts by the Missions have facilitated the compilation of a database containing information about Sri Lankan workforce abroad, which is now being used by the ministry. These efforts have come in addition to the “Contact Sri Lanka” online portal which had 59,419 registrations as of April 15.
Missions have been instructed to maintain 24-hour emergency hotlines and to roster embassy staff on continuous duty to attend to the concerns and requirements of Sri Lankans in their respective stations.
In light of the concerns surrounding Sri Lankans in Australia, the Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Melbourne has reconfirmed that students in Australia were safe and that short-term visa holders may apply for extensions. Financial and non-financial assistance is being rendered to Sri Lankans in dire situations in Australia via extended working hour permits, employee funds, university fee assistance, and essential living assistance. The Sri Lanka Consulate General in Melbourne is coordinating assistance to Sri Lankan students and short-term visa holders with the High Commission of Sri Lanka in Canberra.
Jacklin Victor, a Sri Lankan who was starnded in the Malaysian airport for weeks, told the Sunday Times that she had been repatriated almost immediately after she was contacted by the embassy and she was now in quarantine in Batticaloa.