Stranded Sri Lankans to return home

A Cabinet paper, submitted by Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, to facilitate the transportation of 33 Sri Lankans stranded at airports in certain countries, was approved yesterday, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, the Cabinet spokesman announced.

Some of them were stranded in London, Mahe in the Seychelles, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Adis Ababa and Istanbul. Among them were students and public officials.

Well informed sources said there were a number of Sri Lankan students studying in universities, particularly in India, and they had appealed to the authorities, in the Sri Lanka High Commission, expressing their willingness to return home as soon as possible.

Their main grouse was that the food provided to them were not prepared under hygienic conditions as those preparing them were utterly careless about their hygiene and thus the students were prone to be infected by the coronavirus.

(Source: The Island – By Harischandra Gunaratna)