COLOMBO –Over 500 Sri Lankan migrant workers stranded in Oman, included over 300 who had overstayed their visas were repatriated to Colombo in two batches on Thursday (14) and Friday (15).
The Sri Lanka Embassy in Oman, in a statement issued on Tuesday (19) said the 568 stranded Sri Lankans were repatriated by the embassy in collaboration with the President Secretariat and the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka, and was facilitated by SriLankan airlines, which brought home the stranded workers in two batches.
The statement noted that the Government of Oman had granted an amnesty for the destitute migrant workers whose visas had expired, to leave Oman with the full waiver of their penalties and fines, and the Sri Lankan Mission provided them with necessary travel documents free of charge to return home.
Apart from those overstaying their visas, others repatriated included Sri Lankan migrant workers who lost their jobs, those released from prisons and those under medical emergencies
Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Sultanate of Oman ,Ameer Ajwad extended his sincere gratitude to the Government of Sultan Haitham bin Tarik for the generous gesture extended to the destitute Sri Lankan migrant workers enabling them to return home.
The statement said the Government of Sri Lanka had arranged free PCR tests for the two batches, on arrival at the BIA and provided quarantine facilities free of charge for 14 days at a government maintained quarantine centre.
It said the embassy has so far facilitated around 2600 Sri Lankan migrant workers to return to Sri Lanka in the aftermath of COVID-19 outbreak.
-ENCL