After social media posted photos of homeless Sri Lankans including women waiting in parks in Arab countries stuck there due to flight cancellation, 430 expatriate Sri Lankans arrived in the country yesterday and today. EK 648 brought 50 Sri Lankans from Dubai, ET 8804 brought 110 Sri Lankans from Dubai and UL 226 brought 270 more people from Dubai.
Sixty-six more Sri Lankans are expected from Mumbai today, says National Operation Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19.
All the persons who arrived in the country will have to undergo 14 days of quarantine in centres maintained by the military.
Meena Sathi, a UK trained academic (Gender, Poverty and Development), who is presently domiciled in Dubai and is currently occupied as an activist cum volunteer, assisting the migrant worker community stranded there, speaking to Ceylon Today, said many, including well over 100 Sri Lankan men and women, with various visa statuses (visit, work and resident, with persons who fall within the definition of the latter two categories also losing their jobs in the wake of COVID-19), have been experiencing such deprivation and degradation for weeks on end. They are languishing in a few public parks near the Sri Lankan Consulate such as that in Jafiliya, which has no toilets let alone the bare essentials of basic sanitation and healthcare facilities, and no sleeping mattresses made available for its non-arboreal inhabitants.
In the backdrop of the ever-present societal fear of COVID-19, she noted that, when they go to relieve themselves at toilets in small shops and petrol stations, they are scolded for being potential carriers of the virus. As far as food and drink are concerned, while the Consulate supplies food packets for breakfast and lunch, those stranded claim that they do not receive their dinner from the Consulate despite stating otherwise.
Foreign Ministry has so far repatriated 40,000 Sri Lankans from over 122 countries and over 13,000 from the Middle Eastern Region, the focal point of the Foreign Ministry (FM) on COVID -19 Action and DG/East Asia Kandeepan Balasubramaniam said to Ceylon Today.
(Photo: Sri Lankans living in a park - from Colombo Telegraph)
