The Kuwaiti Government has offered to fly Sri Lankan migrant workers back, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha said that Foreign Relations and Foreign Employment Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, having received Cabinet sanction yesterday, is going to engage with its Kuwaiti counterpart and will be discussing a process by which Sri Lanka can respect an amnesty offer.
“We will be starting the process, but the Kuwait Government is very conscious that we can’t bring all the people who are wanting to come at this point. Therefore, we will have to, between the two governments, have some negotiations on how we phase that out,” he said.
He also said that Sri Lankans in the Maldives and Bangladesh, where COVID is spreading at a very rapid pace, also want to return.
“The Cabinet Paper’s second aspect was to ensure that local quarantine facilities are reserved for those coming who can’t afford to go to quarantine in Hotels. Third, the Cabinet Paper referred to the continued Diplomatic representation to sustain the large number of migrant workers in their current places of domicile and also to ensure that there is continued supply to the most needy, which is something Missions with the support of the SLBFE has been doing over the past few weeks,” he said.
Aryasinha said that Sri Lanka’s Missions across the world, not only in the Middle East are providing valuable assistance to all Sri Lankans abroad. (Colombo Gazette)