Over 600 Sri Lankans repatriated from UK, Australia and Maldives

By T.K.G. Kapila  

A total of 648 Sri Lankans stranded in the UK, Australia and the Maldives  landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) by three separate SriLankan Airline flights during the weekend. 

 
Accordingly, 234 Sri Lankans who were stranded in London were flown to the country on Saturday morning while 229 Sri Lankans arrived from Melbourne, Australia on Saturday evening.  A total of 185 Sri Lankans stranded in the Maldives also arrived at the BIA yesterday afternoon by the SriLankan flight UL 102.  

All the returnees were subjected to PCR tests at the airport.   Meanwhile, the repatriation of Sri Lankan nationals from overseas has been suspended with effect from July 14, Additional Secretary to the President, Admiral (Retd) Prof. Jayanath Colombage said.   

He said the decision was taken as a temporary measure and the possibility of recommencement would be reviewed when the situation  improved.    SriLankan Airlines flights were operated to repatriate stranded Sri Lankans from various corona virus pandemic hit countries under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s directives recently.