Health Declaration Form in Chinese and English issued to air passengers

• This has raised concern amongst the Sri Lankan returnees 

By Nirmala Kannangara  

 Airport and Aviation Service (Sri Lanka) Limited is accused of issuing the Health Declaration Form for the COVID-19 screening test for the passengers on board only in English and Chinese but not either in Sinhalese or in Tamil languages.  

This has raised concern amongst the Sri Lankan returnees.   

 “I travelled to Sri Lanka on Emirates a few days back, and when I was given this form on board, I was confused as to why our national language Sinhalese or even Tamil was not in the form but in Chinese/ English. According to the document given, it was the Ministry of Health that has issued it. When has the government taken the decision to replace Sinhalese with the Chinese language?” said one of the returnees.  

According to him, after landing at the Katunayake airport, another form which was available in Sinhalese or Tamil was given which was to seek more personal details of the returnees.  

“There were few Sri Lankan passengers on board who couldn’t understand English, to which I had to help them out. This has to be taken up with the authorities concerned because, if we, as responsible citizens of this country remain silent, the government in future will print all official documents only in English and Chinese,” sources claimed.   

However, Chairman Airport and Aviation Service Maj. Gen. (Rtd) G. A. Chandrasiri said that for those who want forms in Sinhalese and Tamil are also available at the airport. 

• the forms in question have been printed in March this year as there were lot of Chinese arrivals during the period