SJB to repatriate Sri Lankan expatriates and start up quarantine centres

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) will start its own programme to repatriate Sri Lankan expatriates and start up quarantine centres in each electoral constituency, an MP representing the party said today.

SJB MP Hector Appuhamy told a media conference that his party was prepared to repatriate Sri Lankan expatriate workers and start up its own quarantine centres if the government failed to launch an effective programme to assist Sri Lankan expatiates.

“We are prepared to work with the Foreign Employment Bureau to repatriate Sri Lankan expatriates and run our own centres to quarantine them. We have the ability to start up such an exercise,” Mr. Appuhamy said.

“We will also stage a protest on Friday, March 19 near the Presidential Secretariat to urge the government to assist Sri Lankan expatriates.” he added.

While alleging that the government is treating those with diplomatic passports and Sri Lankans with foreign passports differently, he said all Sri Lankan expatriates should be treated in the same way. “Sri Lankans with diplomatic and foreign passports are allowed to move freely without being quarantined,” he alleged.

“Minister Namal Rajapaksa should have started a programme to help Sri Lankan expatriates without going to Dubai. He should have ordered the Sri Lankan diplomatic missions to collect details of Sri Lankans whose visas had expired and those who had fallen ill,” the MP said.(Yohan Perera)