7,000 Sri Lankan nationals seeking repatriation from Maldives

7,000 Sri Lankan nationals stranded in the Maldives are seeking repatriation from the island nation.

This was revealed by the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry via a statement on Friday, announcing that the Foreign Relations, Skills Development, Employment and Labor Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena is committed to continue the repatriation of the country’s nationals from several parts of the world.

As such, the ministry noted that the greatest vulnerability is in the Maldives at present, particularly in the Greater Malé Region where the government has imposed a lockdown following the discovery of a Covid-19 community transmission in mid-April.

As such, the ministry noted that the Maldivian government has explicitly requested foreign governments to evacuate citizens.

Out of the 7,000 seeking repatriation, 2,000 Sri Lankan nationals are in the locked down Greater Malé Region.

The statement goes on to read that on May 14, 284 Sri Lankan nationals were evacuated from the island nation and special approval had be to procured in order to repatriate a few medical emergency cases from outside the capital city.

Further, the Sri Lankan foreign ministry has held discussions with the Maldivian authorities, who are willing to conduct Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing for those to be repatriated, in advance. This will be done provided that PCR test kits and medical personnel from Sri Lanka are made available to do so.

A majority of Sri Lankan workers in the Maldives are workers in the tourism industry and a number of them have even lost their jobs due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the island nation.

Sri Lankan authorities are working to repatriate migrant workers from the Middle East as well as other regions and it is being done in a manner “sensitive to the vulnerability of these communities, particularly those who have lost legal status and/or employment in their host countries”.