481 Lankans arrive at BIA from three Gulf countries

A total of 481 Sri Lankan employees working in the Middle East countries, have arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) this morning, Airport Duty Manager said.

He said the Lankans arrived from three Middle East countries under special permission granted by the Government, under the repatriation programme to bring all Lankans who are stranded overseas due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Accordingly, 44 Lankans from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 147 from Doha, Qatar and 290 from Bahrain were flown back to the country, he said.

PCR tests have been conducted on all the passengers by Government and private hospitals in Colombo and later they were directed to tourist hotels and State quarantine centres to serve quarantine process, the Duty Manager added. (T.K.G. Kapila)